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- Title
- Integrating Multiobjective Optimization with the Six Sigma Methodology for Online Process Control.
- Creator
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Abualsauod, Emad, Geiger, Christopher, Elshennawy, Ahmad, Thompson, William, Moore, Karla, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Over the past two decades, the Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control (DMAIC) framework of the Six Sigma methodology and a host of statistical tools have been brought to bear on process improvement efforts in today's businesses. However, a major challenge of implementing the Six Sigma methodology is maintaining the process improvements and providing real-time performance feedback and control after solutions are implemented, especially in the presence of multiple process performance objectives...
Show moreOver the past two decades, the Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control (DMAIC) framework of the Six Sigma methodology and a host of statistical tools have been brought to bear on process improvement efforts in today's businesses. However, a major challenge of implementing the Six Sigma methodology is maintaining the process improvements and providing real-time performance feedback and control after solutions are implemented, especially in the presence of multiple process performance objectives. The consideration of a multiplicity of objectives in business and process improvement is commonplace and, quite frankly, necessary. However, balancing the collection of objectives is challenging as the objectives are inextricably linked, and, oftentimes, in conflict.Previous studies have reported varied success in enhancing the Six Sigma methodology by integrating optimization methods in order to reduce variability. These studies focus these enhancements primarily within the Improve phase of the Six Sigma methodology, optimizing a single objective. The current research and practice of using the Six Sigma methodology and optimization methods do little to address the real-time feedback and control for online process control in the case of multiple objectives.This research proposes an innovative integrated Six Sigma multiobjective optimization (SSMO) approach for online process control. It integrates the Six Sigma DMAIC framework with a nature-inspired optimization procedure that iteratively perturbs a set of decision variables providing feedback to the online process, eventually converging to a set of tradeoff process configurations that improves and maintains process stability. For proof of concept, the approach is applied to a general business process model (-) a well-known inventory management model (-) that is formally defined and specifies various process costs as objective functions. The proposed SSMO approach and the business process model are programmed and incorporated into a software platform. Computational experiments are performed using both three sigma (3?)-based and six sigma (6?)-based process control, and the results reveal that the proposed SSMO approach performs far better than the traditional approaches in improving the stability of the process. This research investigation shows that the benefits of enhancing the Six Sigma method for multiobjective optimization and for online process control are immense.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2013
- Identifier
- CFE0004968, ucf:49561
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004968
- Title
- An Approach for Measuring the Confidentiality of Data Assured by the Confidentiality of Information Security Systems in Healthcare Organizations.
- Creator
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Gallaher, Shawn, Elshennawy, Ahmad, Sala-Diakanda, Serge, Karwowski, Waldemar, Xanthopoulos, Petros, Yousef, Nabeel, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Because of the expansion in health information technology and the continued migration toward digital patient records as a foundation for the delivery of healthcare services, healthcare organizations face significant challenges in their efforts to determine how well they are protecting electronic health information from unauthorized disclosure. The disclosure of one's personal medical information to unauthorized parties or individuals can have broad-reaching and long-term impacts to both...
Show moreBecause of the expansion in health information technology and the continued migration toward digital patient records as a foundation for the delivery of healthcare services, healthcare organizations face significant challenges in their efforts to determine how well they are protecting electronic health information from unauthorized disclosure. The disclosure of one's personal medical information to unauthorized parties or individuals can have broad-reaching and long-term impacts to both healthcare providers and consumers. Although several classes and types of methodologies exist for measuring information security in general, a number of overarching issues have been identified which prevent their adaptation to the problem of measuring the confidentiality (the protection from unauthorized disclosure) of electronic information in complex organizational systems.In this study, a new approach for measuring the confidentiality of electronic information in healthcare-related organizations is developed. By leveraging systemic principles and concepts, an information security system (ISS) for assuring the confidentiality of electronic information in healthcare organizations is synthesized. The ISS is defined as a complex system composed of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Security Rule information security safeguards and the people, processes, and technologies that contribute to these safeguards. The confidentiality of the ISS (-) a desired emergent property defined in terms of the systemic interactions which are present (-) represents the measure of protection from the unauthorized disclosure of electronic information.An information security model (ISM) that leverages the structure and parametric modeling capabilities of the Systems Modeling Language (SysML) was developed for specifyingan ISS in addition to the contained systemic interactions which are present. Through the use of a parametric solver capability, the complex system of equations which quantify the contained interactions was executed for the purpose of generating a measure of confidentiality using a set of user-provided input values (-) a process referred to as ISM instantiation.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2012
- Identifier
- CFE0004378, ucf:49380
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004378
- Title
- Parallel Distributed Discrete Event Simulation Optimization Using Complexity and Deep Learning.
- Creator
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Cortes, Edwin, Rabelo, Luis, Lee, Gene, Kincaid, John, Elshennawy, Ahmad, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Parallel distributed discrete event simulation (PDDES) is the execution of a discrete event simulation on a tightly or loosely coupled computer system with multiple processors. The discrete-event simulation model is decomposed into several logical processors (LPs) or simulation objects that can be executed concurrently using partitioning types such as spatial and temporal. PDDES is exceedingly important for the reduction of the simulation time, increase of model size, intellectual property...
Show moreParallel distributed discrete event simulation (PDDES) is the execution of a discrete event simulation on a tightly or loosely coupled computer system with multiple processors. The discrete-event simulation model is decomposed into several logical processors (LPs) or simulation objects that can be executed concurrently using partitioning types such as spatial and temporal. PDDES is exceedingly important for the reduction of the simulation time, increase of model size, intellectual property issue mitigation in multi-enterprise simulations, and the sharing of resources.One of the problems with PDDES is the time management to provide flow control over event processing, the process flow, and the coordination of different logical processors to take advantage of parallelism. Time Warp (TW), Breathing Time Buckets (BTB), and Breathing Time Warp (BTW) are three time management schemes studied by this research. For a particular PDDES problem, unfortunately, there is no clear methodology to decide a priori a time management scheme to achieve higher system and simulation performance.This dissertation shows a new approach for selecting the optimal time synchronization technique class that corresponds to a particular parallel distributed anddiscrete simulation with different levels of simulation logic complexity. Simulation complexities such as branching, parallelism, function calls, concurrency, iterations, mathematical computations, messaging frequency, event processing, and number of simulation objects interactions were given a weighted parameter value based on the cognitive weight approach. Deep belief neural networks were then used to perform deep learning from the simulation complexity parameters and their corresponding optimal time synchronization scheme value as measured by speedup performance.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2015
- Identifier
- CFE0006211, ucf:51114
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006211
- Title
- The effect of Baldrige performance excellence program on organization's innovation/dynamic capabilities.
- Creator
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Alomairy, Mohammed, Elshennawy, Ahmad, Rabelo, Luis, Xanthopoulos, Petros, Porter, Robert, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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This dissertation investigated the effect of Baldrige performance excellence program on organization's innovation/dynamic capabilities improvement. According to the literature, there is little or no practical method for building dynamic/innovation capabilities within organizations. The study hypothesizes that Baldrige performance excellence program helps organizations to systematically develop the required dynamic/innovation capabilities for innovation.Twenty-four organizations that had...
Show moreThis dissertation investigated the effect of Baldrige performance excellence program on organization's innovation/dynamic capabilities improvement. According to the literature, there is little or no practical method for building dynamic/innovation capabilities within organizations. The study hypothesizes that Baldrige performance excellence program helps organizations to systematically develop the required dynamic/innovation capabilities for innovation.Twenty-four organizations that had implemented Baldrige program over the past five years participated in this research study. Two types of data were measured/collected from these organizations; Performance excellence data and Innovation capabilities data. To avoid bias in the data collection, the two data were measured and collected at different time frames and using different tools and methods. The analysis confirmed positive correlation between Organizations' performance excellence improvement through Baldrige program and Innovation capabilities represented in the Six Building Blocks Innovation model used in this research study.The performance excellence data of the organizations were measured using three different assessment programs from Florida Sterling Council, the state approved version of the US National Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award Program. The three different assessment programs were designed to help organizations in various stages of their performance excellence journey. Challenge program; designed for new organizations that have no experience with Baldrige criteria and typically have low performance, requires a written application and a team of five experienced examiners to visit the organization and conduct thorough interviews with the all the employees. Governor Sterling Award (GSA) program; designed for more experienced organizations that want to further improve their performance using intensive assessment criteria, requires a written application and a team of eight experienced examiners to visit the organization and conduct intensive interviews with most of the the employees. And Governor Sustained program; designed for mature organizations that completed the GSA assessment in the past three years and want to continue sustain their performance, requires a written application and a team of three experienced examiners to visit the organization and conduct a thorough meetings and interviews with management level employees.ANOVA statistical tool was used to analyze the difference in performance among the organizations that participated in at least one of the three assessment programs. The result showed a statistical difference with challenge program being the control group. This confirms that organizations' can systematically improve their performance when implementing Baldrige performance excellence program.The innovation capabilities data of the participated organizations were measured/collected using a survey-based tool. The innovation capabilities survey covers six building blocks; Innovation Value, Innovation Behavior, Innovation Climate, Innovation Resources, Innovation Process, Innovation Success measures. The Overall innovation capabilities measured based on the average score of all the six innovation building blocks.ANOVA statistical tool was used to analyze the innovation capabilities of organizations from the three assessment programs. The result confirmed a statistical difference with challenge program being the control group. Regression analysis was also used to analyze the relationship between performance excellence and each of the six innovation building blocks. The outcome of the study shows a positive correlation between the implementation of Baldrige performance excellence and organizations' innovation capabilities. Which confirms that Baldrige performance excellence program can be used by organizations to systematically build the required dynamic/innovation capabilities for innovations.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2016
- Identifier
- CFE0006068, ucf:50964
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006068
- Title
- Assessing the Effect of Social Networks on Employee Creativity in a Fast-Food Restaurant Environment.
- Creator
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Rabinowitz, Mitchell, Karwowski, Waldemar, Elshennawy, Ahmad, Rabelo, Luis, Williams, Kent, Beitsch, Owen, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Creativity has been widely recognized as critical to the economic success of organizations for over 60 years. Today, it is considered to be the most highly prized (")commodity(") of businesses. As such, there have been numerous efforts to better understand creativity with the goal of increasing individual creativity and therefore improving the economic success of organizations. An emerging area of research on creativity recognizes creativity as a complex, social process that is dependent upon...
Show moreCreativity has been widely recognized as critical to the economic success of organizations for over 60 years. Today, it is considered to be the most highly prized (")commodity(") of businesses. As such, there have been numerous efforts to better understand creativity with the goal of increasing individual creativity and therefore improving the economic success of organizations. An emerging area of research on creativity recognizes creativity as a complex, social process that is dependent upon many factors, including those of an environmental nature. In support of this perspective, a growing amount of research has investigated the effect of social networks on individual creativity. This relationship is based on the premise that an individual's social network affects access to diverse information, which in turn, is critical for creativity. The previous studies on this relationship, however, have been conducted in a limited number of environments, most of which have been knowledge-intensive in nature. As such, this study was conducted in a fast-food restaurant environment to determine whether the relationship between social networks and creativity is the same as in other, previously studied environments.Data was collected for a sample of 247 employees of an organization consisting of seven fast-food franchise restaurants of a popular fast-food restaurant chain in the northeast region of the United States. An ordinary least squares regression model was developed to investigate the relationship between creativity and the commonly studied social network variables: number of weak ties, number of strong ties, clustering, and centrality. The social network variables accounted for 17.3% of the overall variance in creativity, establishing that a relationship does exist between social networks and creativity in the fast-food restaurant environment. This relationship, however, was not as expected. In contrast to expectations, weak ties were not found to be a significant, positive predictor of creativity. Also, strong ties were found to be a significant, positive predictor of creativity, where it was expected that this relationship would be in the negative direction. Centrality, however, was found to be a significant, positive predictor of creativity, as expected, while the results for clustering were inconclusive due to its high correlation with the other social network variables in the study.As such, it appears that the relationship between social networks and creativity may be different in the fast-food restaurant environment when compared to environments previously studied. It is possible that this difference is a result of the differences between high and low knowledge-intensive working environments. The lack of support for weak ties as a significant positive predictor of creativity in conjunction with limited opportunities for significant creative achievement suggests that access to diverse information may be less important for creativity in the fast-food restaurant environment than in other environments. The findings that strong ties and centrality are significant, positive predictors of creativity, however, appear to indicate that the ability to implement a creative idea, however minor it may be, is more important in the fast-food restaurant environment than the generation of that idea in the first place. Due to the limitations of this study, however, it is not possible to definitively conclude this notion without efforts to determine which factor afforded by positions rich in strong ties or high in centrality, the informational benefits or the organizational influence, is more important for creativity.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2016
- Identifier
- CFE0006846, ucf:51799
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006846
- Title
- Modeling Dense Storage Systems With Location Uncertainty.
- Creator
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Awwad, Mohamed, Pazour, Jennifer, Elshennawy, Ahmad, Thompson, William, Leon, Steven, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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This dissertation focuses on developing models to study the problem of searching and retrieving items in a dense storage environment. We consider a special storage configuration called an inverted T configuration, which has one horizontal and one vertical aisle. Inverted T configurations have fewer aisles than a traditional aisle-based storage environment. This increases the storage density; however, requires that some items to be moved out of the way to gain access to other more deeply...
Show moreThis dissertation focuses on developing models to study the problem of searching and retrieving items in a dense storage environment. We consider a special storage configuration called an inverted T configuration, which has one horizontal and one vertical aisle. Inverted T configurations have fewer aisles than a traditional aisle-based storage environment. This increases the storage density; however, requires that some items to be moved out of the way to gain access to other more deeply stored items. Such movement can result in item location uncertainty. When items are requested for retrieval in a dense storage environment with item location uncertainty, searching is required. Dense storage has a practical importance as it allows for the use of available space efficiently, which is especially important with the scarce and expensive space onboard of US Navy's ships that form a sea base. A sea base acts as a floating distribution center that provides ready issue material to forces ashore participating in various types of missions. The sea basing concept and the importance of a sea base's responsiveness is our main motivation to conduct this research.In chapter 2, we review three major bodies of literature: 1) sea based logistics, 2) dense storage and 3) search theory. Sea based logistics literature mostly focuses on the concept and the architecture of a sea base, with few papers developing mathematical models to solve operational problems of a sea base, including papers handling the logistical and sustainment aspects. Literature related to dense storage can be broken down into work dealing with a dense storage environment with an inverted T configuration and other papers dealing with other dense storage configurations. It was found that some of the dense storage literature was motivated by the same application, i.e. sea based logistics. Finally, we surveyed the vast search theory literature and classification of search environments. This research contributes to the intersection of these three bodies of literature. Specifically, this research, motivated by the application of sea basing, develops search heuristics for dense storage environments that require moving items out of the way during searching. In chapter 3, we present the problem statements. We study two single-searcher search problems. The first problem is searching for a single item in an inverted T dense storage environment. The second one is searching for one or more items in an inverted T storage environment with items stacked over each other in the vertical direction.In chapter 4, we present our first contribution. In this contribution we propose a search plan heuristic to search for a single item in an inverted T, k-deep dense storage system with the objective of decreasing the expected search time in such an environment. In this contribution, we define each storage environment entirely by the accessibility constant and the storeroom length. In addition, equations are derived to calculate each component of the search time equation that we propose: travel, put-back and repositioning. Two repositioning policies are studied. We find that a repositioning policy that uses the open aisle locations as temporary storage locations and requires put-back of these items while searching is recommended. This recommendation is because such a policy results in lower expected search time and lower variability than a policy that uses available space outside the storage area and handles put-back independently of the search process. Statistical analysis is used to analyze the numerical results of the first contribution and to analyze the performances of both repositioning polices. We derive the probability distribution of search times in a storeroom with small configurations in terms of the accessibility constant and length. It was found that this distribution can be approximated using a lognormal probability distribution with a certain mean and standard deviation. Knowing the probability distribution provides the decision makers with the full range of all possible probabilities of search times, which is useful for downstream planning operations.In chapter 5, we present the second contribution, in which we propose a search plan heuristic but for multiple items in an inverted T, k-deep storage system. Additionally, we consider stacking multiple items over each other. Stacking items over each other, increases the number of stored items and allows for the utilization of the vertical space. In this second contribution, we are using the repositioning policy that proved its superiority in the first contribution. This contribution investigates a more general and a much more challenging environment than the one studied in the first contribution. In the second environment, to gain access to some items, not only may other items need to be moved out of the way, but also the overall number of movements for items within the system will be highly affected by the number of items stacked over each other. In addition, the searcher is given a task that includes searching and retrieving a set of items, rather than just one item.For the second contribution, the performance of the search heuristic is analyzed through a Statistical Design of Experiments, and it was found that searching and retrieving multiple items instead of just a single item, would decrease the variability in search times for each storeroom configuration. Finally, in chapter 6, conclusions of this research and suggestions for future research directions are presented.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2015
- Identifier
- CFE0006256, ucf:51045
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006256
- Title
- High Performance Techniques for Face Recognition.
- Creator
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Aldhahab, Ahmed, Mikhael, Wasfy, Atia, George, Jones, W Linwood, Wei, Lei, Elshennawy, Ahmad, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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The identification of individuals using face recognition techniques is a challenging task. This is due to the variations resulting from facial expressions, makeup, rotations, illuminations, gestures, etc. Also, facial images contain a great deal of redundant information, which negatively affects the performance of the recognition system. The dimensionality and the redundancy of the facial features have a direct effect on the face recognition accuracy. Not all the features in the feature...
Show moreThe identification of individuals using face recognition techniques is a challenging task. This is due to the variations resulting from facial expressions, makeup, rotations, illuminations, gestures, etc. Also, facial images contain a great deal of redundant information, which negatively affects the performance of the recognition system. The dimensionality and the redundancy of the facial features have a direct effect on the face recognition accuracy. Not all the features in the feature vector space are useful. For example, non-discriminating features in the feature vector space not only degrade the recognition accuracy but also increase the computational complexity.In the field of computer vision, pattern recognition, and image processing, face recognition has become a popular research topic. This is due to its wide spread applications in security and control, which allow the identified individual to access secure areas, personal information, etc. The performance of any recognition system depends on three factors: 1) the storage requirements, 2) the computational complexity, and 3) the recognition rates.Two different recognition system families are presented and developed in this dissertation. Each family consists of several face recognition systems. Each system contains three main steps, namely, preprocessing, feature extraction, and classification. Several preprocessing steps, such as cropping, facial detection, dividing the facial image into sub-images, etc. are applied to the facial images. This reduces the effect of the irrelevant information (background) and improves the system performance. In this dissertation, either a Neural Network (NN) based classifier or Euclidean distance is used for classification purposes. Five widely used databases, namely, ORL, YALE, FERET, FEI, and LFW, each containing different facial variations, such as light condition, rotations, facial expressions, facial details, etc., are used to evaluate the proposed systems. The experimental results of the proposed systems are analyzed using K-folds Cross Validation (CV).In the family-1, Several systems are proposed for face recognition. Each system employs different integrated tools in the feature extraction step. These tools, Two Dimensional Discrete Multiwavelet Transform (2D DMWT), 2D Radon Transform (2D RT), 2D or 3D DWT, and Fast Independent Component Analysis (FastICA), are applied to the processed facial images to reduce the dimensionality and to obtain discriminating features. Each proposed system produces a unique representation, and achieves less storage requirements and better performance than the existing methods.For further facial compression, there are three face recognition systems in the second family. Each system uses different integrated tools to obtain better facial representation. The integrated tools, Vector Quantization (VQ), Discrete cosine Transform (DCT), and 2D DWT, are applied to the facial images for further facial compression and better facial representation. In the systems using the tools VQ/2D DCT and VQ/ 2D DWT, each pose in the databases is represented by one centroid with 4*4*16 dimensions. In the third system, VQ/ Facial Part Detection (FPD), each person in the databases is represented by four centroids with 4*Centroids (4*4*16) dimensions. The systems in the family-2 are proposed to further reduce the dimensions of the data compared to the systems in the family-1 while attaining comparable results. For example, in family-1, the integrated tools, FastICA/ 2D DMWT, applied to different combinations of sub-images in the FERET database with K-fold=5 (9 different poses used in the training mode), reduce the dimensions of the database by 97.22% and achieve 99% accuracy. In contrast, the integrated tools, VQ/ FPD, in the family-2 reduce the dimensions of the data by 99.31% and achieve 97.98% accuracy. In this example, the integrated tools, VQ/ FPD, accomplished further data compression and less accuracy compared to those reported by FastICA/ 2D DMWT tools. Various experiments and simulations using MATLAB are applied. The experimental results of both families confirm the improvements in the storage requirements, as well as the recognition rates as compared to some recently reported methods.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2017
- Identifier
- CFE0006709, ucf:51878
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006709
- Title
- A Framework for Lean Transformation in Developing Countries: The Case of Saudi Arabian Industry.
- Creator
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Andejany, Murad, Elshennawy, Ahmad, Rabelo, Luis, Lee, Gene, Darwish, Mohammed, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Lean is a dynamic, knowledge-driven, and customer focused philosophy that continuously eradicates waste and generates value, with a goal to improve a company's productivity, efficiency, and quality. Successful implementation of lean does not only offer cost reduction and improved quality and productivity, but also provides efficient guidance for organizations to attain significant and continued growth. Although its adoption by companies has proven successful in developed countries, there is...
Show moreLean is a dynamic, knowledge-driven, and customer focused philosophy that continuously eradicates waste and generates value, with a goal to improve a company's productivity, efficiency, and quality. Successful implementation of lean does not only offer cost reduction and improved quality and productivity, but also provides efficient guidance for organizations to attain significant and continued growth. Although its adoption by companies has proven successful in developed countries, there is no sufficient evidence of its successful implementation in developing countries such as Saudi Arabia. A review of the literature indicates that there is a need to study lean transformation in developing countries as part of a comprehensive approach to their survival in the global economy. The purpose of this research is to develop a framework for a successful lean transformation in developing countries. The framework was developed by conducting a thorough literature review analysis and interviewing key personnel in ten local and eight multinational Saudi Arabian companies. The framework reacted to general data about lean transformation in developing countries, assessed a lean transformation level, and constructed the Interpretive Structure Molding (ISM) for barriers to achieve a successful lean transformation. Expert opinions were used for validation of the main components of this study, which are assessment, barriers, ISM and framework. Similar to the literature findings which indicated that the level of successful lean transformation in developing countries is low, the assessment revealed that the lean transformation level in local companies in Saudi Arabia is between 30% and 40%, and in multinational companies the level is between 50% and 60%. Both local and multinational companies in the case of Saudi Arabian industry considered lack of suppliers' involvement, lack of cooperation from suppliers, lack of good quality suppliers, and slow response to market due to demand fluctuations as the root barriers that need to be addressed at the primary stages of lean transformation. The resulting framework provides clear phases with an estimated timeline for each phase, from the foundation phase to the excellence level phase. In addition, it involves executive leaders and a cross-functional team to mentor and assess the transformation after each phase. The framework comprises several methods and tools that can be considered critical success factors for lean transformation, which will enable companies in developing countries to move toward achieving a successful lean transformation and sustainability, as well as reaching higher and persistent levels of growth.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2017
- Identifier
- CFE0006713, ucf:51892
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006713
- Title
- A New Six Sigma Implementation Approach For Power Generation Gas Turbines Repair Process Development.
- Creator
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Ghunakikar, Somesh, Elshennawy, Ahmad, Rabelo, Luis, Thompson, William, Furterer, Sandra, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Power Generation gas turbines used for heavy duty application mainly constitutes three modules; compressor, combustion and turbine. Typically, all these parts are designed by OEM companies for specific number of hours and cycles (also known as starts) before they become dysfunctional. In addition, Gas Turbine (GT) also have intended repair interval depending upon the type of part application and anticipated damages during service operation. Thus, GT parts need inspections and repair (overhaul...
Show morePower Generation gas turbines used for heavy duty application mainly constitutes three modules; compressor, combustion and turbine. Typically, all these parts are designed by OEM companies for specific number of hours and cycles (also known as starts) before they become dysfunctional. In addition, Gas Turbine (GT) also have intended repair interval depending upon the type of part application and anticipated damages during service operation. Thus, GT parts need inspections and repair (overhaul) after certain operating hours in order to recondition them so that they can be fit for reoperation to produce power. In this dissertation, a unique six sigma DFSS approach for development of GT parts overhaul is presented for total quality improvement. In this dissertation report, a unique six sigma DFSS approach is presented applicable to the development of repair processes for GT parts that can be used during overhauling of the parts. All six sigma phases of the proposed DFSS approach along with repair product development cycle are discussed. Various six sigma tools which yield significant benefits for the process users are also discussed. Importantly, a statistical probabilistic life analysis approach is proposed in order to verify the structural integrity of a repaired GT part. Finally a case study of GT axial compressor diaphragms (stators) to illustrate various phases and six sigma tools usage during each phase of the DFSS approach is discussed. The overall significant benefit of the proposed DFSS approach was to achieve total quality improvement to deliver final GT repair process, faster repair development cycle and end customer satisfaction.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2016
- Identifier
- CFE0006105, ucf:51199
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006105
- Title
- A Hybrid Simulation Framework of Consumer-to-Consumer Ecommerce Space.
- Creator
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Joledo, Oloruntomi, Rabelo, Luis, Lee, Gene, Elshennawy, Ahmad, Ajayi, Richard, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
In the past decade, ecommerce transformed the business models of many organizations. Information Technology leveled the playing field for new participants, who were capable of causing disruptive changes in every industry. (")Web 2.0(") or (")Social Web(") further redefined ways users enlist for services. It is now easy to be influenced to make choices of services based on recommendations of friends and popularity amongst peers. This research proposes a simulation framework to investigate how...
Show moreIn the past decade, ecommerce transformed the business models of many organizations. Information Technology leveled the playing field for new participants, who were capable of causing disruptive changes in every industry. (")Web 2.0(") or (")Social Web(") further redefined ways users enlist for services. It is now easy to be influenced to make choices of services based on recommendations of friends and popularity amongst peers. This research proposes a simulation framework to investigate how actions of stakeholders at this level of complexity affect system performance as well as the dynamics that exist between different models using concepts from the fields of operations engineering, engineering management, and multi-model simulation. Viewing this complex model from a systems perspective calls for the integration of different levels of behaviors. Complex interactions exist among stakeholders, the environment and available technology. The presence of continuous and discrete behaviors coupled with stochastic and deterministic behaviors present challenges for using standalone simulation tools to simulate the business model.We propose a framework that takes into account dynamic system complexity and risk from a hybrid paradigm. The SCOR model is employed to map the business processes and it is implemented using agent based simulation and system dynamics. By combining system dynamics at the strategy level with agent based models of consumer behaviors, an accurate yet efficient representation of the business model that makes for sound basis of decision making can be achieved to maximize stakeholders' utility.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2016
- Identifier
- CFE0006122, ucf:51171
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006122
- Title
- Exploring the Innovation Environment within the Systems Engineering Context of a Defense Organization: A Preliminary Framework.
- Creator
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Odeh, Khaled, Rabelo, Luis, Elshennawy, Ahmad, Lee, Gene, Karwowski, Waldemar, Uddin, Nizam, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Innovation may involve the introduction of ideas for designing or producing new products, or introducing improvements to products, processes, services or any other aspect of an organization to the market place. A major element for measuring organizational strength is its perception of innovation and the ability of the organization to build on and sustain such strength. While there is no shortage of research and study materials on innovation, there is, however, a shortage of thorough and...
Show moreInnovation may involve the introduction of ideas for designing or producing new products, or introducing improvements to products, processes, services or any other aspect of an organization to the market place. A major element for measuring organizational strength is its perception of innovation and the ability of the organization to build on and sustain such strength. While there is no shortage of research and study materials on innovation, there is, however, a shortage of thorough and realistic analysis of the intersection of innovation management, and measurement of innovation within the systems engineering context of defense organizations. In addition, while most research studies seem to adopt strictly quantitative innovation factors in determining innovation success and performance, they seem to have overlooked the qualitative side of it. An objective of this research study is to address the need for exploring the innovation environment within the systems engineering context of a defense organization. In addition, the research presents a new model for exploring innovation factors within the examined environment, using both quantitative and qualitative factors. The research uses a number of data collection instruments that include a survey construct to gather quantitative and qualitative data. The study identified significant factors that could be used to properly determine innovation within the systems engineering context of defense organizations using traditional statistics and data mining modeling. New indicators such as security and organizational leadership are discovered as important to define, monitor, and assess the innovation of the defense industry within the context of systems engineering.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2013
- Identifier
- CFE0004903, ucf:49643
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004903
- Title
- A Framework of Critical Success Factors for Business Organizations that Lead to Performance Excellence Based on a Financial and Quality Systems Assessment.
- Creator
-
Francisco, Melissa, Elshennawy, Ahmad, Karwowski, Waldemar, Rabelo, Luis, Xanthopoulos, Petros, Weheba, Gamal, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
One of the most important tasks that business leaders undertake in order to achieve a superior market position is strategic planning. Beyond this obligation, business owners desire to maximize profit and maintain steady growth. In order to do this, resources must be invested in the most efficient way possible in order to achieve performance excellence. Adjusting business operations quickly, however, especially in times of economic uncertainty, is extremely difficult. Business leaders...
Show moreOne of the most important tasks that business leaders undertake in order to achieve a superior market position is strategic planning. Beyond this obligation, business owners desire to maximize profit and maintain steady growth. In order to do this, resources must be invested in the most efficient way possible in order to achieve performance excellence. Adjusting business operations quickly, however, especially in times of economic uncertainty, is extremely difficult. Business leaders therefore need insight into which elements of organizational improvement are most effective in order to strategically invest their resources to achieve superior performance in the most efficient way possible.This research examines the results of companies which have a demonstrated ability to achieve performance excellence as defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Malcolm Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. This research examined award-winning applications to determine common input factors, compared the business results of a subset of those award-winners with the overall market for a time-frame of 11 years, and then investigated the profitability, liquidity, debt management, asset management, and per share performance ratios of award-winners compared with their industry peers over 11 years as well.The main focus of this research is to determine whether participation in performance excellence best practices have created value for shareholders and business owners. This objective is achieved through the analysis of performance results of award winning companies. This research demonstrates that the integration of efforts associated with performance excellence is in-fact advantageous.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2014
- Identifier
- CFE0005331, ucf:50503
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005331
- Title
- A Framework For Workforce Management An Agent Based Simulation Approach.
- Creator
-
Marin, Mario, Rabelo, Luis, Lee, Gene, Elshennawy, Ahmad, Kincaid, John, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
In today's advanced technology world, enterprises are in a constant state of competition. As the intensity of competition increases the need to continuously improve organizational performance has never been greater. Managers at all levels must be on a constant quest for finding ways to maximize their enterprises' strategic resources. Enterprises can develop sustained competitiveness only if their activities create value in unique ways. There should be an emphasis to transfer this...
Show moreIn today's advanced technology world, enterprises are in a constant state of competition. As the intensity of competition increases the need to continuously improve organizational performance has never been greater. Managers at all levels must be on a constant quest for finding ways to maximize their enterprises' strategic resources. Enterprises can develop sustained competitiveness only if their activities create value in unique ways. There should be an emphasis to transfer this competitiveness to the resources it has on hand and the resources it can develop to be used in this environment. The significance of human capital is even greater now, as the intangible value and the tacit knowledge of enterprises' resources should be strategically managed to achieve a greater level of continuous organizational success. This research effort seeks to provide managers with means for accurate decision making for their workforce management. A framework for modeling and managing human capital to achieve effective workforce planning strategies is built to assist enterprise in their long term strategic organizational goals.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2014
- Identifier
- CFE0005375, ucf:50439
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005375
- Title
- Success in Technology Organizations.
- Creator
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Bass, Joseph, Elshennawy, Ahmad, Rabelo, Luis, O'Neal, Thomas, Sivo, Stephen, Hosni, Yasser, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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In today's economic environment, it is advantageous for technology organizations to be cognizant of prevalent influences on success and failure and to incorporate this knowledge into their business and innovation strategies. Technology organizations were defined within this research as those in the business of created competence which is expressed in terms of entities consisting of devices, procedures, and acquired human skills (Clarke, 2005). Although, no organization contains the ideal mix...
Show moreIn today's economic environment, it is advantageous for technology organizations to be cognizant of prevalent influences on success and failure and to incorporate this knowledge into their business and innovation strategies. Technology organizations were defined within this research as those in the business of created competence which is expressed in terms of entities consisting of devices, procedures, and acquired human skills (Clarke, 2005). Although, no organization contains the ideal mix of culture and ideological emphases, some have amassed impressive track records of great success. A literature review was used to identify factors relevant within similar contexts such as influences on creativity, innovation, Research and Development (R(&)D), etcetera. The salient factors identified within the literature review were hypothesized as being very important to great success within technology organizations. A conceptual model was created that visually illustrated the interactions of those factors and their influence on technology organization success which was defined as average annual revenue growth and direct new job creation. An internet questionnaire was utilized to test the hypotheses among 15 very successful technology organizations according to their respective Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) or equivalents. These companies were randomly chosen from a population of the technology organizations included in Inc. Magazine's Inc. 5000, a list of the 5000 fastest growing companies in America. The questionnaire primarily consisted of Likert questions designed to test the hypotheses. The dependent variable in the statistical analyses, technology organization success, was ranked according to average annual revenue growth and direct new job creation relative to the other organizations within the sample set. The top category in typical questionnaire Likert questions included the adjective (")very(") that was interpreted to imply that the particular factor was exactly or precisely essential to affect that level of success, this in the collective opinion of the CTOs. Not meeting the threshold of exactly or precisely was interpreted that the factor may not be essential to that level of success. Rejection of the respective null hypotheses and subsequent acceptance of the alternative hypotheses were interpreted as evidence that particular factors were essential to great levels of technology organization success. And, the conceptual model was updated accordingly. Acceptance of null hypotheses demonstrated that the factors may not be essential; therefore, they were excluded from further discussion and the model. Seventeen key factors and/or categories were identified according to the Chief Technology Officers within the population of very successful technology organizations as having substantial influence on the success of those organizations. Recommendations were made to technology organizations aspiring towards prolific levels of success.As a check, three open-ended questions were included and used to verify that no consensus crucial elements were omitted within the Likert question section of the questionnaire. There were no consensus factors identified within those open-ended questions.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2013
- Identifier
- CFE0004652, ucf:49903
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004652
- Title
- Managing, Controlling and Improving the Treatment of Produced Water Using the Six Sigma Methodology for the Iraqi Oil Fields.
- Creator
-
Al-Shamkhani, Maher T., Elshennawy, Ahmad, Rabelo, Luis, Pazour, Jennifer, Xanthopoulos, Petros, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Produced Water (PW) is the largest volume of waste that is normally generated during oil and gas production. It has large amounts of contaminants that can cause negative environmental and economic impacts. The management method for PW relies highly on types and concentrations of these contaminants, which are field dependent and can vary from one oil field to another. Produced water can be converted to fresh water if these contaminants are removed or reduced to the acceptable drinking water...
Show moreProduced Water (PW) is the largest volume of waste that is normally generated during oil and gas production. It has large amounts of contaminants that can cause negative environmental and economic impacts. The management method for PW relies highly on types and concentrations of these contaminants, which are field dependent and can vary from one oil field to another. Produced water can be converted to fresh water if these contaminants are removed or reduced to the acceptable drinking water quality level. In addition, increasing oil production rate and reducing amounts of discharged harmful contaminants can be achieved by removing dissolved hydrocarbons from PW. In order to identify the types of these contaminants, effective tools and methods should be used. Six Sigma, which uses the DMAIC (Define- Measure- Analyze- Improve- Control) problem-solving approach is one of the most effective tools to identify the root causes of having high percentages of contaminants in produced water. The methodology also helped develop a new policy change for implementing a way by which this treated water may be used. Six Sigma has not been widely implemented in oil and gas industries. This research adopted the Six Sigma methodology through a case study, related to the southern Iraqi oil fields, to investigate different ways by which produced water can be treated. Research results showed that the enormous amount of contaminated PW could be treated by using membrane filtration technology. In addition, a Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) framework is developed and that could be used as an effective tool for decision makers. The developed framework could be used within manufacturing industries, services, educational systems, governmental organizations, and others.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2013
- Identifier
- CFE0004645, ucf:49904
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004645
- Title
- Design of a Framework to Measure the Degree of Live Virtual Constructive (LVC) Simulation Interoperability.
- Creator
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Kim, Kiyoul, Lee, Gene, Rabelo, Luis, Elshennawy, Ahmad, Kincaid, John, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Accomplishment of the Live, Virtual and Constructive simulation interoperability has been a major goal and a challenge in the Modeling and Simulation (M(&)S) community. There have been efforts to interoperate individual Live, Virtual and Constructive simulations within a common synthetic environment through suitable technologies such as interface specifications, protocols, and standard middleware architectures. However, achieving interoperability of LVC simulation is a technologically complex...
Show moreAccomplishment of the Live, Virtual and Constructive simulation interoperability has been a major goal and a challenge in the Modeling and Simulation (M(&)S) community. There have been efforts to interoperate individual Live, Virtual and Constructive simulations within a common synthetic environment through suitable technologies such as interface specifications, protocols, and standard middleware architectures. However, achieving interoperability of LVC simulation is a technologically complex since it is affected by multiple factors, and the characteristics are not yet satisfactorily defined and studied. A proper method is absent to measure the potential interoperability degree of LVC simulation. Therefore, there should be an appropriate systematic approach to measure the potential LVC simulation interoperability which includes technical, conceptual and organizational domains. This research aims to design a preliminary systematic approach to measure the potential interoperability degree of an individual Live, Virtual and Constructive simulation and a relevant organization which plans to use the simulation system for simulation interoperability. Specifically, a framework that contains components such as a) LVC simulation interoperability domains, b) interoperability domain factors, c) interoperability maturity levels, d) interoperability determination method is proposed. To accomplish the goal, a set of factors that determine the interoperability degree in LVC simulation environment are identified, and the factors are used to build the key elements of the framework. The proposed methodology for the framework design is based on systematic literature reviews and a survey involving a number of relevant domain experts. A case study is demonstrated to prove the validity and effectiveness of the developed framework. The case study illustrates how the interoperability levels of a simulation system and a relevant organization are effectively measured. This research potentially contributes by providing an understanding of the factors that determine the interoperability degree of LVC simulation, improvement of the LVC simulation interoperability measurement process, and consequently, accomplishment of more effective LVC simulation interoperability.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2015
- Identifier
- CFE0005818, ucf:50032
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005818
- Title
- Assessing Safety Culture among Pilots in Saudi Airlines: A Quantitative Study Approach.
- Creator
-
Alsowayigh, Mohammad, Karwowski, Waldemar, Elshennawy, Ahmad, Lee, Gene, Hancock, Peter, Mikusinski, Piotr, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
In high- risk industries, such as aviation, safety is a key for organization survivor. Most accidents involve human losses and bring substantial cost to organizations. Accidents can devastate the reputation and profitability of any organization. In aviation, more than 80% of aircraft accidents are related to human errors. Safety culture has substantial impact on the success of any organization. Employees' performance and behaviors are influenced by their perception of safety culture within...
Show moreIn high- risk industries, such as aviation, safety is a key for organization survivor. Most accidents involve human losses and bring substantial cost to organizations. Accidents can devastate the reputation and profitability of any organization. In aviation, more than 80% of aircraft accidents are related to human errors. Safety culture has substantial impact on the success of any organization. Employees' performance and behaviors are influenced by their perception of safety culture within their organization. In the aviation industry, pilots are considered the last resort to prevent accidents or mishaps in the air or ground. The focus on pilots' perception of safety culture is vital to understand how the airline can influence pilots' behaviors in the flight deck, and provide opportunities to minimize risk or unsafe behavior in the future. The present study examined the effect of safety culture on safety performance among pilots of Saudi Airlines. Safety performance was measured by pilot attitude toward violations and pilot error behavior. The study further analyzed the mediating role of pilot commitment to the airline between safety culture and measures of safety performance. The study used a quantitative approach using survey questionnaire to collect the data. A total of 247 commercial airline pilots, captain and first officer, flying at Saudi Airlines voluntarily participated in the study. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to validate each latent construct. The study used structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze the relationship between all variables in the study using AMOS 22 software. The study results revealed that safety culture had a direct effect on pilot attitude toward violations and indirect effect on pilot error behavior. Moreover, safety culture had strong effect on enhancing pilot commitment to the airline. The mediating role of pilot commitment to the airline was not significant, and could not mediate the relationship between safety culture and measures of safety performance. The present research contributed to the current state of knowledge about the significant role of safety culture as a main predictor of safety performance in civil aviation. The present study contributes to aviation psychology by analyzing the effect of safety culture as a predictor for improving pilot commitment to the airline. In addition, this research analyzed the effect of safety culture on pilot attitude toward violations and pilot error behavior. Study findings can be used by airline management to better identify causes of unsafe behavior inside the cockpit. The outcomes of this research emphasize the role of management in shaping and affecting employees' behaviors and attitudes.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2014
- Identifier
- CFE0005454, ucf:50371
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005454