Thesis (Ph. D. in Software Engineering)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2003. / Dissertation supervisor: Luqi. Includes bibliographical references (p. 163-171). Also available online.

Thesis (M.S. in Management)--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2003. / Thesis advisor(s): Joseph San Miguel, Don E. Summers. Includes bibliographical references (p. 51). Also available online.

Transportation sector has been a major contributing factor to the overall emissions of most pollutants and thus their impacts on the environment. Among all transportation activities, on-road travel accounts for most part of the Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and fuel use. It also has a very un-desirable impact on the transportation network conditions increasing the traffic congestion levels. The main aim of transportation planning agencies is to implement the policy changes that will reduce automobile dependency and increase transit and non-motorized modes usage. However, planning agencies can come up with proactive economic, land-use and transportation policies provided they have a model which is sensitive to all the above mentioned factors to predict the vehicle fleet composition and usage of households. Moreover, the type of vehicle that a household gets (vehicle type choice) and the annual mileage (usage) associated with that vehicle is very closely related to the person in the household who uses that vehicle the most (allocation to primary driver). So, it is no longer possible to view all these decisions separately. Instead, we need to model all these decisions- vehicle type choice, usage, and allocation to primary driver simultaneously at a household level. In this study, we estimate and apply a joint household-level model of the number of vehicles owned by the household, the vehicle type choice of each vehicle, the annual mileage on each vehicle, as well as the individual assigned as the primary driver for each vehicle. A version of the proposed model system currently serves as the engine for a household vehicle composition and evolution simulator, which itself has been embedded within the larger SimAGENT (for Simulator of Activities, Greenhouse emissions, Networks, and Travel) activity-based travel and emissions forecasting system for the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) planning region. / text

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Forskning har visat att vilken typ av kontorsmiljö ett företag har påverkar medarbetarnas välmående och arbetstillfredsställelse. Det har även påvisats ett samband mellan arbetstillfredsställelse och de anställdas produktivitet. Syftet med denna studie är att öka förståelsen för hur införandet av ett aktivitetsbaserat kontor kan upplevas av de berörda medarbetarna och hur de upplever att deras arbetssätt, arbetstillfredsställelse och produktivitet förändrats. I aktivitetsbaserade kontor är alla arbetsplatser gemensamma och medarbetarna väljer arbetsplats beroende på typ av arbetsuppgift. Studien är utförd på ett stort industriföretag i Västsverige som infört aktivitetsbaserat arbetssätt. Datainsamlingen skedde genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med 10 tjänstemän vilka bestod av lika många män som kvinnor. Analysen gjordes genom en deduktiv innehållsanalys. Införandet av aktivitetsbaserat kontor har resulterat i ökad kommunikation och ökat samarbete mellan avdelningar och medarbetare. Medarbetarna upplever lika eller en ökad arbetstillfredsställelse och produktivitet i den nya miljön. Författaren upplever införandet av aktivitetsbaserat kontor som framgångsrikt.

Many companies are increasing their competitiveness through quality improvement. However, a widely held view among quality practitioners is that companies simply do not know the true total cost of quality, which are mostly hidden among the general overhead of the business. This problem is often attributed to an inappropriate costing system. Thus, any system that assisted companies in identifying and properly quantifying these costs will be valuable. This research, therefore, was aimed at developing a Quality Cost Information System for manufacturing industry, and to show that such a system could provide a basis for analysing quality costs and developing and evaluating the quality improvement process. A literature review of the quality literature highlighted that the major problems that hindered potential users from implementing an effective and efficient Quality Cost system were: current quality cost measurement systems were limited by their inability to trace quality costs to their source; quality was manageable only if it could be measured; quality cost did not easily fit into the traditional cost accounting structure; traditional accounting systems were unlikely to change radically to accommodate proper quality costing. This literature review was complemented by an industrial survey aimed at identifying knowledge of quality costing and current practices in manufacturing industry. The findings of the literature review and industrial survey formed the basis for the remainder of the study. As part of an integrated solution, three approaches have been proposed and detailed: 1) A graphical model of quality costing in the form of a visual tool to facilitate the introduction and communication of a quality costing information system within the organisation. 2) A proposed integration of Activity Based Costing tools with the theory of quality costing to provide a system that can deliver valuable information. 3) A Software tool for the design of Quality Costing Information Systems. The thesis concludes with the major findings and issues raised from the research undertaken. This is followed by recommendations for the successful pursuit of the beneficial implementation of the proposed quality costing system and tools along with several suggestions for further work and future research potential.

Thesis (M.S.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-90).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Michigan, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references.

The built environment has long been considered as a potentially influential factor in shaping and changing people’s travel behaviour. However, many gaps still exist in the understanding of the direction, size and mechanism of this influence. This thesis explores the complexities in the influence of the built environment on daily travel using a behaviour-oriented, activity-based modelling approach based on the notion of utility maximisation. The model simulates the full process of decision making in daily activity participation and travel, which involves the decisions on the type and frequency of activity participation, the sequence of activities, the choice of destinations and the time and mode of travel. Moreover, the thesis also addresses the lack of understanding on the influence of the ‘third dimension’ of the built environment — the street facades. A machine learning-based method is proposed to automatically evaluate the qualities of street facades from street view images. Scenario analyses using the proposed model show that, both commute and non-commute travel are more sensitive to the built environment in proximity to home (in my experiment, 500 metre buffer zone). In the context of Beijing, the total car use and commute car use of a person is significantly affected by the level of land use mix and the continuity of street facades around home, among all built environment features. Non-commute car use is significantly affected by employment density, retail density, accessibility to commercial clusters, bus coverage, road density and the quality and continuity of street facades. Similar effects on the final outcomes of travel behaviour (such as total car use) by different built environment features can happen through diverse processes and have different implications for people’s actual experience and the urban system. Some of the results are consistent with theoretical assumptions and some are not, which provides alternative insights into the relationship between the built environment and travel behaviour.

在過去爆炸成長的年代，許多公司基本上是沒有成本觀念的，只要產品能夠順利的完成，並且儘量改善，即可以賺到更多錢的成本觀念是唯一的成本觀念。但是新的競爭對手不斷出現，環境的要求改變，客戶成本持續降低，員工薪資成本不斷提升，都在在說明了不能夠再依照過去沒有成本觀念的想法進行管理。 ABC(Activity Based Costing)成本分析的模式是相當明確的，但是實際上因為成本和時間的考量，實際運用的狀況卻又相當少，本研究在ABC成本分析的架構上做更簡化、更適合台灣加工服務產業的變化，以求能夠幫助台灣加工服務產業更容易導入新的成本概念和計算模式，甚至在未來更能夠運用數據做更進一步的管理。 / In the last 20 years in Taiwan, Milling and Grinding Industry has nearly no concept about cost calculating, since at those years, these industries are in seller’s market condition. They don’t really need to know the actual cost because of the high profits. Yet, things are changing now, more competitors, more salary cost, and stronger cost-down request from the clients. Hence, these industries are facing an even challenging condition. They will need a simple, low-cost, and effective cost calculating system. Activity-based costing system is proved effective in the past, yet not simple enough and quite expensive. This research works on how to simplify ABC system to make sure it’s good enough for milling and grinding industries. And expect these industries would be able to use Activity-based costing system in practice in the future, even more, to do actual data administration.