by T.S. Chew. / Thesis (M.Sc.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references. / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Network Planning / Chapter 2.1 --- Routing Planning / Chapter 2.2 --- Junction Circuit Planning / Chapter 2.3 --- Signalling Network Planning / Chapter Chapter 3 --- System Architecture / Chapter 3.1 --- User Interface / Chapter 3.2 --- Control / Chapter 3.3 --- Design / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Network Creation / Chapter 4.1 --- Network Compilation / Chapter 4.2 --- Traffic Characteristics / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Network Design / Chapter 5.1 --- Routing Design / Chapter 5.2 --- Junction Circuit Design / Chapter 5.3 --- Signalling Network Design / Chapter Chapter 6 --- Program Description / Chapter Chapter 7 --- Design Example / Chapter Chapter 8 --- Conclusions / References / Chapter Appendix 1 - --- Erlang B Formula / Chapter Appendix 2 - --- Program Listing of NETPLAN / Chapter Appendix 3 - --- Design Example Results / Chapter 3.1 - --- Network Objects / Chapter 3.2 - --- Network Configuration / Chapter 3.3 - --- Network Design Result with No. of Paths =1

According to Brail, a planning professor at Rutgers University, it is abundantly clear that the electronic spreadsheet is the single most important computer tool available to the practicing planner, (working paper, 1985,1) What is the value, measured in increased productivity, of spreadsheet programs to planners? Spreadsheet programs, referred to simply as spreadsheets, are an enhanced version of the paper spreadsheet. Paper spreadsheets are tabular forms commonly used by bookkeepers and accountants. Spreadsheets perform computations that would be tedious and perhaps impossible on a paper spreadsheet. A number of factors influence the value of spreadsheets to planners. This thesis discuses three factors in detail: the capabilities of spreadsheets, the utility of the planning models whose computations sometimes involve spreadsheets, and the savings in development time by employing spreadsheet templates. Assessing the capabilities of spreadsheets requires clarifying the concept of spreadsheets and describing their general applications. Clarifying the concept includes defining spreadsheet terms such as worksheet, functions, macros, and templates', depicting the evolution of spreadsheets; highlighting differences between spreadsheet packages; and noting the limitations of spreadsheets. Describing the general applications involves discussing the three major uses of spreadsheets: table production, numerical analysis, and the testing of "what if scenarios. Evaluating the utility of the planning models whose computations sometimes involve spreadsheets requires two steps. The first step establishes the relationship between models and spreadsheets in data analysis for planning. The second step examines the advantages and disadvantages of the planning models. Determining the savings in development time by employing templates involves three steps. The first step constructs criteria by which to evaluate the structure of a template for accuracy and ease of use. The second step examines how well available templates fit the planning model discussed. The third step evaluates the structure of each of the templates using the criteria constructed. Five chapters compose the body of the thesis. The first chapter explains the concept of the spreadsheet. The second chapter illustrates the general applications of spreadsheets, determines the role of spreadsheets in data analysis for planning, and develops criteria by which to evaluate a template's structure. Each of the last three chapters demonstrates the potential of spreadsheets to planners by describing and evaluating planning models and spreadsheet templates. There are many factors influencing the value of spreadsheets to planners not covered in this thesis which may prove grounds for further research. The thesis ignores the affect the planner's access to computers and programs, knowledge of computers, and attitude towards computers has on the value of spreadsheets. Furthermore, the thesis does not establish the relative worth of spreadsheets in comparison to other possible tools for performing the computation of a planning model. Therefore, this thesis is unable to confirm Brail's claim that spreadsheets are the most important computer tool. Nevertheless, this thesis provides reasons for Brail's enthusiasm towards spreadsheets. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

No description available.

No description available.

This thesis explores whether computer-based expert systems can be used in planning and, if so, under what circumstances. Expert systems are computer-based programs that solve problems in a way that mimics the human reasoning process. Expert system reasoning relies upon logic and rules-of-thumb rather than the numerical and mathematical algorithms of most other computer programs. Planning has been interpreted in the professional context of urban and regional planning, rather than the cross-disciplinary fiscal or project management planning often implied in computer literature. To determine expert systems could be useful to planners, the reasons for incompatibility between the nature of planning and conventional computers models of the past are explored. Advantages and disadvantages of expert systems are considered. Expert systems represent substantial improvement in areas where conventional programs are inadequate. Chapters 2 to 5 form the theoretical base of the thesis. Chapter 2 explains the fundamentals of expert system reasoning and how it differs from other computer software. Chapter 3 outlines reasons why this technology might appeal to planners. Chapter 4 introduces some of the disadvantages of expert systems, including technical limitations, ethical and legal issues. Chapter 5 introduces general guidelines to help the reader understand what type of planning tasks might benefit from the use of this new tool. Chapters 6 to 8 consider issues raised in the preceding chapters. Three Canadian systems now at the forefront of expert systems applications to planning are reviewed in chapters 6, 7 and 8 Respectively. The first application, HERMES, is an emergency planning application. It advises emergency response personnel during crises involving hazardous materials. SCREENER is an environmental planning application. It assists environmental officers at Transport Canada to assess simple capital projects for environmental impact statements and screen out more complicated ones for further review. The third application used for illustrative purposes, PLANCHECKER, is a municipal planning example. The system assists plan checkers at City Hall in assessing building plans. The three case-studies satisfy the task suitability guidelines quite well and appear to be successful applications of expert systems to planning. It is still too early to draw definite conclusions, but it is likely the technology will prove useful to planners. Planners should be prepared understand both the potential and limitations of expert systems so they can use the technology wisely. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2002. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study has reviewed the current literature and debates on the relevance of conventional strategy formulation given the turbulence in the business environment. Conventional strategy formulation is under attack as a result of the advancement of disruptive technologies such as the Internet. Many have gone further, and referred to this digitization of the business environment as a "new" economy. This study has reviewed a range of literature from academicians as well as practitioners on the relevance of strategy in an Internet environment. Many of the authors, while admitting that real-time fine-tuning of some of the analytical tools currently in use was warranted, still feel that most of the conventional concepts still apply. Businessesare still affected by the same competitive forces of rivalry, substitutes, new entrants and the bargaining powers of suppliers and buyers. Organisations must still look for distinctiveness for them to have a sustainable competitive edge over their rivals. This study has reviewed the impact of the Internet on industry structure, the value chain, and the implications for competitive advantage. The conclusion that can be gleaned from these reviews is that doing business on the Internet will not save businessesfrom failure if they are not applying the correct strategies. The convergence of views appears to be that there is nothing new about the "new" economy, but the technological platform created by the Internet presents major opportunities that can be used in a hybrid form of online practices such as online order processing with established models of brick and mortar such as warehousing. While the study did not intend to produce new or validate existing empirical insights, it is has recommended that the Internet must be used as an enabler and integrated within existing businessprocesses. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie hersien die huidige literatuur en bespreek die toepaslikheid van die konvensionele strategieformulasie gegewe die onvoorspelbaarheid in die besigheidsomgewing. Konvensionelestrategieformulering is onder aanval as gevolg van die vordering van omverwerpende tegnologie soos die Internet. Verskeie menings gaan verder, met verwysing na die rekenarisering van die besigheidsomgewing as 'n "nuwe" ekonomie. Hierdie studie hersien 'n reeks van literatuur van akademeci, asook praktisyns oor die toepaslikheid van strategie in die Internet omgewing. Baie van die outeure, terwyl hulle erken dat intydse verfyning van sekere van die analitiese modelle("tools") tans in gebruik geldig is, is hulle terselfdertyd van mening dat die konvensionele konsepte steeds toepaslik is. Besighede word steeds beinvloed deur dieselfde kompeterende drywers van kompetisie, subtitusie, nuwe mark toetreders en die onderhandelingsmag van verskaffers en aankopers. Organisasies moet steeds op die uitkyk bly vir iets wat volhoubare kompeterende voordele inhou oor mededingers. Die gevolgtrekking van hierdie oorsigte is dat besighede nie suksesvol bedryf kan word op die Internet sonder die toepaslike strategie nie. Die herleiding van sieninge wil voorgee dat daar geen verandering is in die "nuwe" ekonomie, maar dat die tegnologiese platform geskep deur die Internet materiële geleenthede bied wat gebruik kan word as deel van intydse praktyke en bestelprosesse met bestaande basiese"briek and mortar" modelle, soos pakhuise. Terwyl die studie nie bedoel om nuwe empiriese insigte te genereer of te staaf nie, word dit aanbeveel dat die Internet gebruik moet word as deel van bemagting van huidige besigheidsmodelle.

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

published_or_final_version / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Geography and Geology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Process planning and scheduling are two important manufacturing planning functions which are closely related to each other. Usually, process planning and scheduling have to be performed sequentially, whereby the process plans are the input for scheduling. Many investigations have shown that the separate conduction of the two functions is much likely to ruin the effectiveness and feasibility of the process plans and schedules, and it is also difficult to cater for the occurrence of uncertainties in the dynamic manufacturing environment. The purpose of integrated process planning and scheduling (IPPS) is to perform the two functions concurrently. IPPS is a typical combinatorial optimization problem which belongs to the category of NP-hard problems. Research on IPPS has intensified in recent years. Researchers have reported various IPPS systems and solution approaches which are able to generate good solutions for specific IPPS problems. However, there is in general an absence of theoretical models for the IPPS problem representation, and research on the theoretical aspects of the IPPS is limited. The objective of this research is to establish a metaheuristic-based solution approach for the IPPS problem in flexible jobshop type of manufacturing systems. To begin with, a graph-based modeling approach for formulating the IPPS problem domain is proposed. This approach defines a way to use a category of AND/OR graphs to construct IPPS models. The graph-based IPPS model can be formulated using mathematical programming tools including polynomial mixed integer programming (PMIP) and mixed integer linear programming (MILP). The analytical mathematical programming approaches can be used to solve simple IPPS instances but they are not capable for large-scale IPPS problems. This research proposes a new IPPS modelling approach to incorporate metaheuristics in the solution strategy. Actually, the solution strategy comprises the metaheuristics and a mapping function. The metaheuristic is responsible for generating the operation sequences; a mapping function is then used to assign the operations to appropriate time slots on a schedule. General studies of applying constructive and improvement metaheuristics to solve the IPPS problem are conducted in this research. The ant colony optimization (ACO) is applied as a representative constructive metaheuristic, and a nonstandard genetic algorithm approach object-coding genetic algorithm (OCGA) is implemented as an improvement metaheuristic. The OCGA contains dedicated genetic operations to support the object-based genetic representation, and three particular mechanisms for population evolution. The metaheuristic-based solution approaches are implemented in a multi-agent system (MAS) platform. The hybrid MAS and metaheuristics based IPPS solution methodology is able to carry out dynamic rescheduling to cope with occurrence of uncertainties in practical manufacturing environments. Experiments have been carried out to test the IPPS solution approach proposed in this thesis. It is shown that both metaheuristics, ACO and OCGA, are having good performance in terms of solution quality and computational efficiency. In particular, due to the special genetic operations and population evolutionary mechanisms, the OCGA shows great advantages in experiments on benchmark problems. Finally, it is shown that the hybrid approach of MSA and metaheuristics is able to support real-time rescheduling in dynamic manufacturing systems. / published_or_final_version / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy