This dissertation develops a technique for predicting purchasing quality costs and studying their behavior as random variables. The resulting model extends prior research which treated purchasing costs deterministically and it thereby provides management with a valuable decision and planning tool. This is important because the trend is for companies to place an increasing reliance on purchased components. Expressions for the expected cost of three alternative policies are developed: incoming evaluation of components, evaluation of components at the supplier, and waiving of product evaluation with a review of supplier data only. The cost of off-site evaluation (at the supplier), as an alternative to incoming evaluation, has not been considered in previous literature. Important quality cost inputs are treated as random variables with frequency distributions estimated from company historical data. In critical applications where safety of the end user is the primary concern, it is desirable to detect faulty components at the earliest possible stage in the production flow, and some form of product inspection will always be desirable. The model proposed in this dissertation is particularly suitable under these conditions. The model enables the management practitioner to justify switching between policies based on expected costs. Cost data from a small U.S. Government contractor demonstrates the usefulness and application of the model. A computer simulation is used to illustrate the application of the model and a method for developing probability distribution functions from empirical data is discussed and demonstrated. The simulation results suggest that an evaluation policy based on management consensus or intuition may not always be the lowest cost policy.

Worldwide, the idea of "person-less" banks, and full-service (financial services) institutions which compete with "non-bank" financial services organizations, are becoming the new way of doing business. To meet global competition, the Canadian Financial Services Industry has a need to conduct research into how to design their delivery of services by the most efficient and effective means. Specifically, there is a need to develop and position the operating structure of the institution to best respond to the market place, while meeting internal operational performance goals. Accordingly, a fundamental restructuring and reengineering is occurring within a large Canadian Bank. A major objective of this transformation is to provide more convenient and efficient platforms to the customer for performing transactions. This dissertation is directed at evaluating branch bank performance as a means of identifying best practice. Methods are developed to (1) study the performance of traditional bank branches. This activity involves the development of models characterizing both operational and sales performance, and attempts to uncover sources of inefficiency existing within the present structure; (2) provide tools for evaluating branches under the new structure. This effort will allow banks to examine reengineering options, and facilitate the development of a best strategic option for the organization with regard to branch make up; and (3) branch merger. More generally, the result will aid the Canadian Financial Service Industry in undertaking restructuring and reengineering efforts that are now occurring.

Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMSs) are usually composed of general purpose machines with automatic tool changing capability and integrated material handling. FMSs offer the advantages of high utilization levels and simultaneous production of a variety of part types with minimal changeover time. The complexity of FMSs however requires sophisticated control. In this dissertation a four level control hierarchy along with computationally feasible control algorithms for each level is presented. Decisions are made at each level utilizing the flexibility inherent in FMSs. The proposed scheme has the advantages of ensuring satisfaction of higher level decisions as lower level operating decisions are made, and allows performance and status data collected at lower levels to be fed back and influence future high level decisions. The top level is concerned with the choice of part types and volumes to be assigned to the FMS over the next several months. Within this horizon, production volumes are planned for each period, a period typically being between a week and a month in length. A linear programming model is used for planning at this level. The second level plans daily or shift production. Advantage is taken of the FMSs ability to be configured to respond to different part mixes to allocate tools to machines so as to minimize holding costs. Separate mathematical programming models are formulated to match various FMS environments. A heuristic for solution of a model of an automated production flexible environment is detailed. Computational results are presented. Extensions of this heuristic to other environments are outlined. The third level determines process routes for each part type in order to minimize material handling. Additional tools are loaded on machines when possible to maximize alternate routings, and using the flexibility offered by FMSs to process parts along alternate routes, routing assignments are made to minimize workload assignment. These routing assignments are used by level four for actual routing, sequencing and material handling path control. The level three model is formulated as a linear program and heuristics are used for level four. An example is provided to illustrate the completeness of the decision hierarchy and the relationships between levels.

Sustainable development problems are a genre of multi-objective ill-defined problems. The scarcity of resources in developing countries adds to the convolution of these problems, which is rooted within many disciplines. Focusing on the energy sector development and its sustainability, the main contribution of this research is of two folds: (i) The use of conventional energy sources has many negative implications on the economies of developing countries. A review of the global efforts to enhance economic growth through the deployment of renewable energy technologies is presented. Noting the failure of these efforts to accomplish their objective in due time, the appropriate strategic management tools were identified and integrated in the problem solving process to aid steer the decision process towards more effectual solutions. (ii) On the micro level, energy development projects are capital-intensive and hence prohibitive for most of the developing countries. The essence of a successful strategy is then to find the dynamic strategic fit (DSF) between these systems' external factors (opportunities and challenges) and their internal factors (resources and capabilities). We present an algorithm that utilizes the DSF concept to improve on sub-optimal solutions represented by economically feasible developmental projects. We present two real-world applications that illustrate the algorithm's ability to reduce the behavioral makeup of decision-makers and politics effects, which are discerned with MADM models.

Product realization is a very complex, interdisciplinary process. At early design stages, decisions must be made not only about physical attributes of the design, but also about scheduling and resource allocation for many product and manufacturing engineering activities, as well as purchasing, finance, marketing, etc. Typically, complex interdependencies exist among these disparate activities, and it is difficult to predict how decisions will affect overall organizational objectives of low cost, high quality and short time-to-market. Many decision support needs in this process seem to fall in a gap between emerging design-for-manufacture models (which evaluate design attributes for cost of a specific manufacturing activity) and management-level models (such as very abstract but comprehensive PERT-type networks). This research addresses this "gap." In the proposed model there are three distinct object representations that together define a product realization problem: product attributes, activities, and resources. In the first stage of the model, two relational matrices are used to (i) match product attributes to the required design and manufacturing activities, and (ii) then match the activities to the resources required for realization. In the second stage, an activity network is generated from the data in the relational matrices. The network is assembled from predefined "templates" of activities which have default precedence relationships (for example, sequences of prototyping and tooling activities). This activity network is then used to simulate aggregate cash flow. There are several applications envisioned for a computer tool based on this model: as a "prospectus" for new product designs to assess aggregate cost and development time within a specific organizational context; to assist managers in "concurrent" scheduling of design, tooling, and other preproduction activities; as a vehicle for budget negotiation between engineers and financial managers during the design process; and as an aid for value analysis. After reporting results of a field study and prototype computer implementation, I conclude that the model could potentially be used for decision support, but several important conceptual and implementation limitations remain to be addressed.

The Look East Policy (LEP), which was officially launched in February 1982, came about as a result of the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamed's determination to encourage Malaysians to "learn from Japan". Despite the difficulties in transferring management ideas between countries, Mahathir was convinced that with the Look East Policy he could persuade management in Malaysia, and particularly in the manufacturing firms, to implement wholesale the Japanese model of management or Japanese management techniques. This is not only because he believed that Japanese management techniques were the prerequisites for Malaysia's drive for industrialisation, but also he believed that they were the solutions to the problems cojifronting the Malaysian workforce. However, the findings from this study seem to suggest that only certain elements of the Japanese management techniques have been implemented in or transferred to the manufacturing firms in Malaysia. Even then, our findings show that there are a number of problems being encountered, especially if these elements are not compatible with Malaysian cultural and religious beliefs. This could imply that certain elements of the Japanese management practices are culture-bound and therefore difficult to transfer to a different cultural environment. Our findings also seem to suggest that despite the strength of the state in Malaysia, it has not been very successful in promoting, through the Look East Policy, the Japanese style of management to manufacturing firms. Instead, it is suggested that the majority of the Malaysian workforce prefers the present management system that is pro-West, which suggests its profound influence in Malaysia. Hence, it can be argued that because of the multi-ethnic and multi-religious beliefs in Malaysia, and also because of the strong influence of the West, there is a limit to what the state can do or achieve. Based on our findings, it might be possible to suggest the following conclusions: (i) that the Look East Policy was never properly thought through in terms of the difficulty of transferring management techniques from one culture to another; (ii) a more limited objective with regard to learning from the Japanese might have been more successful. However, this would have demanded not only a long-term commitment but also greater involvement from Chinese community; and (iii) that the Look East Policy was always a political as well as an economic one. Perhaps its success should be judged not on a basis of whether it was adopted but on whether it achieved its political objectives.

This thesis investigates the development of the Brazilian vaccine industry. This industry has experienced a sharp growth in the last decades supported by public policies and a protected and fast-growing public market. In addition, this development is apparently characterized by continuous processes of technology acquisition, rather than indigenous R&D, as the main source of its technological knowledge, and by other specificities in the vaccine context. The research draws on studies of the dynamics of technological capability building in catching-up industries of latecomer contexts, especially during the transition period when they are approaching the innovation frontier. It also draws on those studies focusing on new directions/paths as an alternative strategy adopted to overcome barriers and disadvantages to develop. It has been argued that the specificities of the Brazilian context and, of the vaccine sector, may be determining a particular pattern of technological accumulation to this industry, and that interpreting its pattern of development may be useful to understand how and if this industry has overcome its constraints to develop. A framework based on linear approaches of catching-up, and that integrates the innovation transition approach was built as a benchmark model for the search for similarities and differences in the pattern of development of this industry. The findings show similarities and new directions in the process of technological accumulation of the industry, suggesting that, more recently, it has actually developed through a distinct pattern. They also show the strong role of the government and its public market as one of the drivers of this new path. Distinct roles of the technology acquisition strategy and a high level of technological capabilities currently developed are also revealed. Finally, they show that the technology acquisition strategy has effectively contributed to the development of this industry and that the constraints to the completion of the transition phase is linked less to technical and scientific issues and more to managerial and policy ones.

This thesis shows the results of an experiment in order to test the validity of Methods Time Measurement (MTM) data. MTM, developed in 1948, is one of the most commonly used Predetermined Motion Time Systems to calculate standard time for a task. However, there is limited research on the validity of the MTM data in the literature. Today&rsquo / s technology provides new computerized tools to perform time studies. One of such tools is Real Time Method Study (RTMS). RTMS is a computerized method study tool being developed in METU Technopolis, which uses Image Processing and Machine Learning to conduct time studies automatically. RTMS uses MTM data as a benchmark data to compare observed performance results / therefore validity of MTM data is an important issue for it. In order to test the validity of MTM data an experiment conducted in the Ergonomics Laboratory of the METU Industrial Engineering Department. In this experiment 40 undergraduate students performed four different tasks. These tasks were recorded by a video camera and analyzed frame by frame to calculate normal times for basic motions of MTM. Results are compared with the original MTM data and it is shown that MTM times do not fit the observed data. This study in the end suggests updating MTM data or constructing a new standard time database by using a tool like RTMS.

The facilities layout problem, which is an integral part of facilities design, aims to spatially locate the production units within a facility subject to some design criteria and area limitations, with one or multiple objectives. In this study, the layout problem is reviewed in detail, with an emphasis on the dynamic environment it operates in. Despite the fact that layouts within the context of changing manufacturing requirements represent the problem better, the single period block layout problem is observed to have remained worth analyzing. In this thesis, a hybrid model that combines the strong aspects of the available models in the literature is constructed for the single period block layout problem. The LP relaxation of this model and the effect of adding valid inequalities to the model are studied. A rounding heuristic based on the LP relaxation of the problem is proposed and computational experimentation is made. Also, an evolutionary algorithm scheme that uses the sequence pair representation is proposed. Three mutation operators are developed to be used in this scheme. Preliminary test are made for implementations of these operators and results are given.

ABSTRACT A DEA-BASED APPROACH TO RANKING MULTI-CRITERIA ALTERNATIVES Tuncer, Ceren M.Sc., Department of Industrial Engineering Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Murat K&ouml / ksalan August 2006, 88 pages This thesis addresses the problem of ranking multi-criteria alternatives. A Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)-based approach, the Method of the Area of the Efficiency Score Graph (AES) is proposed. Rather than assessing the alternatives with respect to the fixed original alternative set as done in the existing DEA-based ranking methods, AES considers the change in the efficiency scores of the alternatives while reducing the size of the alternative set. Producing a final score for each alternative that accounts for the progress of its efficiency score, AES favors alternatives that manage to improve quickly and maintain high levels of efficiency. The preferences of the Decision Maker (DM) are incorporated into the analysis in the form of weight restrictions. The utilization of the AES scores of the alternatives in an incremental clustering algorithm is also proposed. The AES Method is applied to rank MBA programs worldwide, sorting of the programs is also performed using their AES scores. Results are compared to another DEA-based ranking method. Keywords: Ranking, data envelopment analysis, weight restrictions.