Thesis (M.S.)--Worcester Polytechnic Institute. / Keywords: Cam; Tension-Member; Cam Follower; Metal Tape; Metal Belt. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-80).

Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1992. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 63-66). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Lehigh University, 1997. / Includes vita. Bibliography: leaves 109-114.

Master of Science

Master of Engineering

Thesis. 1979. Sc.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ENGINEERING. / Includes bibliographical references. / by Sergio N. Simunović S. / Sc.D.

Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

The purpose of this research is to develop an approach to minimize makespan for assigning boards to production lines. Because of sequence-dependent setup issue, board assignment and component allocation have to be performed concurrently. An integrated methodology is proposed to obtain a solution of the two problems. The methodology consists of seven phases: PCB grouping, family decomposition, subfamily sequencing, Keep Tool Needed Soonest (KTNS), component setup determination, component allocation, and board assignment. PCB grouping based on component similarity between boards is used to reduce the problem size. Family decomposition is used when total number of feeder slots required by a family exceeds feeder capacity. Subfamily sequencing and Keep Tool Needed Soonest are applied to minimize the number of component setups. Classification of setup components into standard, semi-standard, and custom setup components is performed to reduce the complexity of the component allocation problem. A component allocation algorithm is developed to balance workload across machines. Assigning board families to production lines is performed using a modification of Longest Processing Time (LPT) rule. Assigning entire PCB families to production lines to minimize makespan is difficult to accomplish since the amount of production time for each family is very large compared to that of individual PCB lot. Splitting some subfamilies is allowed as long as this does not increase makespan. The PCB grouping, family decomposition, subfamily sequencing, Keep Tool Needed Soonest (KTNS), and component setup determination procedures are derived from published research results. The component allocation and board assignment are developed in this research, as well as an overall methodology to integrate the entire problem. Data provided by published literature are employed to evaluate performance of the component allocation algorithm and the integrated methodology. To examine the applicability of the methodology, an industrial data is used with the total imbalance due to setup time and placement time of individual PCB and global makespan as the performance measures. Experimentation is conducted with simulated data based on an industry data to investigate impact of threshold value, feeder capacity, and characteristics of data sets on system performance. / Graduation date: 2002

This thesis describes the application of Bayesian networks for monitoring and diagnosis of a multi-stage manufacturing process, specifically a high speed production part at Hewlett Packard. Bayesian network "part models" were designed to represent individual parts in-process. These were combined to form a "process model", which is a Bayesian network model of the entire manufacturing process. An efficient procedure is designed for managing the "process network". Simulated data is used to test the validity of diagnosis made from this method. In addition, a critical analysis of this method is given, including computation speed concerns, accuracy of results, and ease of implementation. Finally, a discussion on future research in the area is given. / Graduation date: 1999

S.B. Gershwin, I.C. Schick. / "October, 1978." Caption title. / Bibliography: leaf 6. / Supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant no. NSF/RANN APR76-12036