There are unique cases when designing products where a prototype is required to demonstrate critical operations of a system or subsystem such that it will serve as a basis for how the design will move forward. These prototypes are oftentimes on the critical design path. Due to the fact there is typically some aspect of a prototype that is not well understood there can be a considerable amount of uncertainty associated with the amount of resources needed to design such a prototype. The goal of this thesis is to address how to systematically reduce uncertainty for the purpose of creating a robust cost estimate. This statement does highlight the problem of defining what a robust estimate is, which results in addressing the key question driving this research: "When is enough information gathered to generate a robust estimate for the design of prototype systems?" The crux of the problem lies in how to characterize the interactions and uncertainty associated with cost, schedule, and performance. Additionally, the breakdown of a prototype system into its subsystems results in errors exist at each division. The result is a cost estimation method that has been generated by leveraging the principles of design methodology. Two test cases are applied including one theoretical model, and one project from the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI). The GTRI project was work performed for the Georgia Department of Transportation related to the filling of cracks on asphalt road surfaces. These examples are evaluated from the view point of the Validation Square in order to verify the effectiveness beyond example problems.

Thesis (M. S.)--Economics, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2006. / Haizheng Li, Committee Chair ; Patrick McCarthy, Committee Member ; Vivek Ghosal, Committee Member. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--Carnegie Institute of Technology. / Bibliography: p. 155-161.

M.Ing. / The principles of lean were understood to be relevant to the operations of a manufacturing enterprise meaning processes associated with material supply, component production and delivery of products and services to the customer. It was identified there was growing awareness that lean principles could be transferred readily to other functions and sectors. The purpose of the study was to investigate the application of lean principles to knowledgebased activities such as engineering design and product development. The organization under study was Olifant Manufacturing Company (OMC), a division of British Aerospace Systems, Land Systems South Africa. Lean product developments (LPD) was identified as one of the leading approaches currently adopted by organizations attempting to maximize value, increase quality, shorten lead times, and lower the costs for product development (PD) processes. The justification for the research was due to and in response to current adverse market trends. There would be the adoption of processes that would radically reduce the product development lead time, product introduction lead time to market, increase process efficiency and product quality and reduce development costs at OMC. The problem statement was formulated as: “Would the researched Lean principles enable OMC to improve its traditional PD to LPD?” The Life Cycle Management (LCM) framework was the mandated organizational framework that guided the execution of projects at BAE Systems The development of the research literature was guided by research questions that sought to identify the relevant framework that would be tailored within the overarching (LCM) framework to enable process improvements. The main findings were that Lean transformation is an organizational journey that would begin with a top down philosophy or strategy approach. Aspects of Lean Product Development were identified and were found to be integrated into a system framework that integrated the transformation of people, processes and tools and technologies.

The aim of this thesis is to perform comparative analysis of the state policies of the Czech Republic and Poland aimed at reducing dust emissions from industrial and power generation sources of air pollution in the Moravia-Silesia and in the Silesian Voivodeship. The analysis is meant to facilitate improving the regulation requirements of these sources in both districts. The extent of regulation of the sources of air pollution in the Silesia Voivodeship influences the amount of dust emissions produced by such sources and, due the influence of the existence of cross-border transfer of emissions, this influences the concentration of particulate matter in the atmosphere in the Moravian-Silesian Region. The thesis arrives at the conclusion that the industrial and power generation sources of air pollution in the Czech Republic in the Moravian-Silesian Region faces stricter regulation requirements in comparison with similar sources in Poland in the former Silesian Voivodeship. Stricter conditions of regulation for Czech sources are the reason for the lower level of emissions and the resulting higher control costs such sources. The thesis concerns comparative analysis of the control costs a sample group of metallurgic and power generation plants in the Moravian-Silesian Region and in the Silesian Voivodeship.

The worldwide technological explosion has dramatically changed the basis of international competition. The accelerated rate of change in product engineering and process technology has led to decreasing product life cycles and made equipment obsolescence a primary concern to U.S. manufacturers. Researchers in academia, industry, and the government have unanimously agreed on the primary role that the investment in advanced manufacturing technologies (AMT, eg., Flexible Manufacturing Systems) can play in meeting the challenges of the new global business environment. However, U.S. manufacturing technology is still lagging far behind U.S. innovation , and many U.S. firms are practically unable to justify the needed modernization. Many authors have written about the necessity to account for strategic, long-term benefits associated with acquiring new AMT’s in order for U.S. manufacturers to justify more easily, and more realistically, their investment decisions. However, most of these authors have overlooked the fact that the decision to acquire a new AMT is most likely to displace existing resources, and that unless manufacturers are offered a tool to evaluate the impact of abandoning obsolete or less-than-profitable products and/or processes and justify such a decision, the needed modernization process will continue to be hindered. The objective of this research is bifold. First, the product/process abandonment problem is reformulated from a new perspective which is congruent with the requirements of the new global business environment. And second, a global decision model (GDM) incorporating the product abandonment option into the company’s overall strategic planning and control system is developed which seeks to help U.S. manufacturers make world-class capital expenditure decisions. To this end, an extensive taxonomic analysis was first conducted to investigate the product abandonment analysis topic as treated in the literature of engineering economy, financial management, management accounting, marketing, strategic management, and corporate organizational and behavioral sciences. The product abandonment problem is then reformulated in view of both the strengths and shortcomings of traditional models and the requirements of the new business environment. Finally, the developed solution methodology is described, implemented as a computer program, and illustrated through an actual case-study. The GDM is governed by an abandonment algorithm and a multi-attribute decision module (MADM) which are interfaced in a highly interactive mode. The proposed abandonment algorithm uses a recursive dynamic programming search method to determine at each decision point in the project life cycle whether it is more profitable to abandon a product or to continue its operations for one more time period. The MADM translates various strategic objectives of the company, financial and non-financial, into quantifiable performance measures and ranks alternative improvement portfolios. Production simulation techniques and activity-based costing (ABC) are suggested to collect the needed input data for the model. Preference ordering theory is used to account for management’s attitude toward risk and make trade-offs between project profitability and riskiness. Once a course of action is selected, its performance must be continuously monitored and controlled in view of pre-specified strategic performance targets. The results obtained from the analysis of the case study confirmed the economic validity of the philosophy underlying the developed solution methodology as well as the ease of application of such a methodology to a wide range of real-life problems. They also demonstrated the benefits that a company can forgo by ignoring the abandonment option throughout the product life cycle. In conclusion, the developed model is believed to be a sophisticated, yet practical, tool which can help engineering managers reach more informed, and therefore more competitive, decisions about their firms’ portfolio of products. Furthermore, pertinent recommendations were made to direct future research regarding this subject matter. / Ph. D.

A new modeling approach to product mix problem and capacity management decisions has been proposed. This new model is based upon the information that is available in an activity-based environment. Activity-based management is one of the latest industrial management concepts based upon Activity-Based Costing (ABC) and Concurrent Engineering principles. ABC has lead to the availability of new cost information which had otherwise been 'hidden' in the form of common overhead cost calculated as a fIxed percentage of the direct cost (e.g. labor cost or material cost). An investigation has been made on the effect of the new information available from ABC on product mix, make versus buy, and capacity expansion decisions. The results of conventional mathematical programming formulations based upon the traditional cost information has been compared with the results of proposed formulations based upon the ABC information. A significant difference in the results has been found. Further, the information on idle capacity that emerge from the proposed formulation has been investigated. The proposed model resulted into an integer programming problem which posed a serious limitation on the computational aspect of the problem. An efficient algorithmic scheme to get a heuristic solution for the proposed formulation has been developed. Also, a method has been proposed to determine the optimal allocation of an additional investment because the sensitivity analyses applicable to linear programming could not be applied in the proposed model due to the discrete nature of the resulting problem. Finally, some computational aspects have been discussed / Master of Science

Thesis (MScEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2001. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis describes a module that links AutoCAD and CeDeas (cost estimation software which was developed by Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Stellenbosch). CeDeas is intended for estimating the direct manufacturing cost of simple welded assemblies in a batch production environment. It is aimed at use during late concept design or early detail design. The link module was developed in Borland C++ Builder. By using COM (Component Object Model) technology, the link module employs the methods and the properties of the AutoCAD automation interface to extract manufacturing information that is required by CeDeas. The link module prompts the user to pick objects in an AutoCAD drawing and then determines the values required by CeDeas to estimate the manufacturing cost. The user can choose between a "direct select method" (which uses the properties of geometric entities already in the drawing) and a "user define method" (whereby the user defmes temporary entities or combines aspects of existing entities in the AutoCAD drawing). With these results and some non-geometric inputs, the user can get a cost estimate of components and assemblies. After design changes, the link module can provide CeDeas with updated values with minimal user interaction in situations where the "direct select method" was used. The designer can therefore easily use the cost estimates to compare design alternatives to optimise the design. Validation studies demonstrated the numerical accuracy of the use of the link module. The link module can be regarded as an extension of CeDeas. At present it only supports AutoCAD R14, but can be extended to support AutoCAD 2000 and Mechanical Desktop. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: 'n Module wat dien as skakel tussen AutoCAD and CeDeas (kosteberamingsagteware ontwikkel deur die Departement van Meganiese Ingenieurswese, Universiteit van Stellenbosch) word in hierdie tesis beskryf. Die doel van CeDeas is om die direkte vervaardiginskoste van eenvoudige, gesweisde samestellings, in 'n lot-produksie omgewing, te beraam. Dit is gemik op gebruik tydens laat konsepontwerp en vroeë detailontwerp. Die skakelmodule is ontwikkel in Borland C++ Builder. Deur van COM (Component Object Model) tegnologie gebruik te maak, kry die skakelmodule toegang tot die funksies en eienskappe van AutoCAD se outomatisasie koppelvlak en kan sodoende die vervaardigingsinligting onttrek wat deur CeDeas benodig word. Die skakelmodule vra die gebruiker om voorwerpe in 'n AutoCAD tekening te kies en bepaal dan die waardes wat deur CeDeas benodig word om die vervaardigingskoste te skat. Die gebruiker kan kies tussen 'n "direkte keuse metode" (wat die eienskappe van geometriese entiteite wat reeds in die tekening is, gebruik) en 'n "gebruiker definieer metode" (waarin die gebruiker tydelike entiteite defmieer of kombinasies van aspekte van bestaande entiteite in die AutoCAD tekening gebruik). 'n Koste beraming van komponente of samestellings kan verkry word met hierdie inligting tesame met ander nie-geometriese inligting. Na ontwerpsveranderings, kan die skakelmodule hersiene waardes vir CeDeas voorsien met minimale gebruikers-interaksie in gevalle waar die "direkte keuse metode" gebruik is. Die gebruiker kan daarom maklik die kosteskattings gebruik om ontwerpsaltematiewe te vergelyk om die ontwerp te optimeer. Evalueringstudies het die numeriese akkuraatheid van die skakelmodule bevesting. Hierdie module kan as 'n uitbreiding van CeDeas beskou word. Tans werk die module slegs met AutoCAD R14, maar dit kan uitgebrei word om met AutoCAD 2000 en Mechanical Desktop te werk.

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters in Business Administration, Durban Institute of Technology, 2008. / The aim of this research is to analyze the introduction of lean manufacturing in a selected South African organization viz. Smiths Manufacturing. The research, together with its conclusions, may identify problematic areas which, once addressed, will improve the implementation in other areas and identify the benefits, if any, of lean manufacturing. Three research objectives exist and two methods of research were used to solve the research questions. The first and second research objectives (i.e. to analyze the manner in which lean manufacturing was introduced in Smiths Manufacturing and its benefit on the company's competitive position and future existence) were analyzed qualitatively with the aid of personal interviews. The third research objective (i.e. to determine the financial benefit of lean manufacturing introduction on the respective assembly line) was analyzed quantitatively. This research revealed three pertinent findings: Firstly, Smiths Manufacturing has adhered to eight of Liker's 13 Step Implementation Procedure with two areas of non-conformance being identified and insufficient information present to comment on the remaining three steps. Secondly, improvements in the manufacturing process have enabled the company to be more price competitive. Areas of improvement were in labour, raw materials and finished goods. These improvements will assist in ensuring the company's future existence. Thirdly, there has been a substantial amount of savings by the introduction of lean manufacturing. This research has identified that communication involving lean manufacturing is vital to introducing a system into a company. This communication enables people at all levels to understand the roll out procedure and the corresponding actions of the company. In addition, the research revealed that the / M

In this thesis, a decision model for examining prescribed risk management practices in engineering design is presented. The decision model explicitly considers the effects that design decisions under uncertainty have on the overall utility of the design process. These effects are important to consider because, according to Utility Theory, the designer should make decisions such that the expected utility is maximized. However, a significant portion of the literature neglects the costs of the design process, and focuses only on the quality of the design artifact, or at best includes its manufacture when determining the utility of an alternative. When designers neglect the costs of the design process, they cannot make tradeoffs between the costs of the design process and the quality of the artifact. As compared to previous work in this area, the decision model presented includes the effects of temporally degrading product utility on design decisions. The decision model is used to investigate the impacts of degrading product utilities in products that launch later as a result of the duration of design actions performed. In this thesis, the decision model is leveraged to investigate two key trends in engineering design resulting from increasing temporally-based costs. To support the conclusions in this thesis, quantitative evaluations of the decision model are investigated for two case studies. The conclusions are additionally supported through evaluations of the decision model in boundary plots that visualize prescribed behavior for designers over varying model parameters.