This thesis examines the practice of Business Process Modeling (BPM) in the field of contracts management. Government defense contractors are heavily burdened by contracts which have ended, but have not been finalized and closed. In order to keep good relations with organizations regulating government contracts, contractors have been forced to devise a strategy to address contract closeouts. Through utilization of BPM practices, an organization is able to not only model the flow of their contract closeout process, but simulate the performance of their process under varying conditions so that goals and deadlines may be met. Data was collected about a defense contractor’s contract closeout process, and a simulation model was created to mimic the behavior of the system over the time to complete the contract closeout process. Various levels of resources were used in simulating the process to test the performance and throughput of the system. Using simulation software, the closeout process was able to be successfully modeled under varying resource levels. The simulation models included true worker process times with integrated schedules, including holidays, over the expected period of performance. The simulation produced a realistic model which allows an organization to plan their resources to accomplish their contract closeout process under specified conditions and deadlines. This work also provides a base for further studies involving BPM and the field of contracts management.

This research developed a process to identify condition deficiencies and sustainment requirements to assist in the development of strategic management plans for aerospace ground test systems that may be unique in design, operation, and/or maintenance. Subject matter experts can use the process to evaluate the condition of a test asset by inputting data into the developed software system. The process was designed around the concept of evaluating the condition of a system against ten parameters that encompass all of the aspects of a system that would be considered in determining its overall condition. A scale of zero (failed) to ten (new condition) is used to score both the current and the future (five years hence) state of the system. A relative aggregate scores approach is used to assign an overall condition value. Questions related to the forecasted workload of the facility and criticality of the asset in meeting the forecasted test programs provide a measure of the asset criticality and thereby assist management with project prioritization. Four different types of condition data output reports are available to management teams. The process was tested and internally validated by evaluating the condition of over three-hundred aerospace ground test assets.

Employee retention is critical to an organization’s competitive position. Employees are resources; and a “good” employee is a valuable asset. From a system’s perspective, employees are critical elements that are needed to ensure the output can be produced effectively and efficiently. Thus, management of this resource is critical for a company’s success. Maintaining a stable workforce in the boat manufacturing industry is a challenge. This is especially true in the assembly area where the average job is unskilled and not considered a career position. The purpose of this study is to identify the individual and organizational factors that contribute to high turnover in the boating industry. This study investigates employee perceptions about the work and management based on a satisfaction survey; and identifies which factors create the most dissatisfaction and lead to turnover. The study used the survey method to collect data from assembly workers of four different companies in the boating industry. A 32-item survey, which measures attitudes and perceptions about the organization, was developed and administered by HR specialists at each company. Results showed that encouragement of suggestions, communication, and involvement in the change process had the greatest impact on employees’ perceptions of a company’s long-term success and those perceptions are highly influential in predicting voluntary exit.

The purpose of this study was to gather a detailed understanding and encompassing list of topics for an Engineering Management Online Handbook. To better understand the profession of Engineering Management, the history of the profession is discussed. Although an Engineering Management Handbook currently exists on the World Wide Web, this study incorporates surveys of practicing engineers and current literature research. General perceptions and comments were collected from practicing engineers about the current state of the Handbook as it exists at the website of the American Society for Engineering Management (www.ASEM.org). It seems as though the main contributors currently are professors associated with the American Society for Engineering Management. Of the 26 topics listed on the Table of Contents, only a handful contains relevant links that have been updated in the past year. Corresponding handbooks were studied and reviewed for gaps or new philosophies and tools. Topics were analyzed and compared to the Engineering Management Body of Knowledge. Recommendations and an encompassing list of topics are provided.

Application of a Hidden Bayes Naive Multiclass Classifier in Network Intrusion Detection

In this thesis, I present a set covering problem (SCP) formulation of the matroid cogirth problem, finding the cardinality of the smallest cocircuit of a matroid. Addressing the matroid cogirth problem can lead to significantly enhancing the design process of sensor networks. The solution to the matroid cogirth problem provides the degree of redundancy of the corresponding sensor network, and allows for the evaluation of the quality of the network. I provide an introduction to matroids, and their relation to the degree of redundancy problem. I also discuss existing methods developed to solve the matroid cogirth problem and the SCP. Computational results are provided to validate a branch-and-cut algorithm that addresses the SCP formulation.

We consider the optimal pricing problem in a service facility in order to maximize its long-run average profit per unit time. We model the facility as a queueing process that may have finite or infinite capacity. Customers are admitted into the system if it is not full and if they are willing to pay the price posted by the service provider. Moreover, the congestion level in the facility incurs penalties that greatly influence profit. We model congestion penalties in three different manners: holding costs, balking customers and impatient customers. First, we assume that congestion-dependent holding costs are incurred per unit of time. Second, we consider that each customer might be deterred by the system congestion level and might balk upon arrival. Third, customers are impatient and can leave the system with a full refund before being serviced. We are interested in both static and dynamic pricing for all three types of congestion penalties. In the static case, we demonstrate that there is a unique optimal price that maximizes the long-run average profit per unit time. We also investigate how optimal prices vary as system parameters change. In the dynamic case, we show the existence of an optimal stationary policy in a continuous and unbounded action space that maximizes the long-run average profit per unit time. We provide explicit expressions for this policy under certain conditions. We also analyze the structure of this policy and investigate its relationship with our optimal static price.

Employee retention is critical to an organization’s competitive position. Employees are resources; and a “good” employee is a valuable asset. From a system’s perspective, employees are critical elements that are needed to ensure the output can be produced effectively and efficiently. Thus, management of this resource is critical for a company’s success. Maintaining a stable workforce in the boat manufacturing industry is a challenge. This is especially true in the assembly area where the average job is unskilled and not considered a career position. The purpose of this study is to identify the individual and organizational factors that contribute to high turnover in the boating industry. This study investigates employee perceptions about the work and management based on a satisfaction survey; and identifies which factors create the most dissatisfaction and lead to turnover.The study used the survey method to collect data from assembly workers of four different companies in the boating industry. A 32-item survey, which measures attitudes and perceptions about the organization, was developed and administered by HR specialists at each company. Results showed that encouragement of suggestions, communication, and involvement in the change process had the greatest impact on employees’ perceptions of a company’s long-term success and those perceptions are highly influential in predicting voluntary exit.

The purpose of this study was to gather a detailed understanding and encompassing list of topics for an Engineering Management Online Handbook. To better understand the profession of Engineering Management, the history of the profession is discussed. Although an Engineering Management Handbook currently exists on the World Wide Web, this study incorporates surveys of practicing engineers and current literature research. General perceptions and comments were collected from practicing engineers about the current state of the Handbook as it exists at the website of the American Society for Engineering Management (www.ASEM.org). It seems as though the main contributors currently are professors associated with the American Society for Engineering Management. Of the 26 topics listed on the Table of Contents, only a handful contains relevant links that have been updated in the past year. Corresponding handbooks were studied and reviewed for gaps or new philosophies and tools. Topics were analyzed and compared to the Engineering Management Body of Knowledge. Recommendations and an encompassing list of topics are provided.

This thesis examines the practice of Business Process Modeling (BPM) in the field of contracts management. Government defense contractors are heavily burdened by contracts which have ended, but have not been finalized and closed. In order to keep good relations with organizations regulating government contracts, contractors have been forced to devise a strategy to address contract closeouts. Through utilization of BPM practices, an organization is able to not only model the flow of their contract closeout process, but simulate the performance of their process under varying conditions so that goals and deadlines may be met. Data was collected about a defense contractor’s contract closeout process, and a simulation model was created to mimic the behavior of the system over the time to complete the contract closeout process. Various levels of resources were used in simulating the process to test the performance and throughput of the system. Using simulation software, the closeout process was able to be successfully modeled under varying resource levels. The simulation models included true worker process times with integrated schedules, including holidays, over the expected period of performance. The simulation produced a realistic model which allows an organization to plan their resources to accomplish their contract closeout process under specified conditions and deadlines. This work also provides a base for further studies involving BPM and the field of contracts management.