Browsing by Author "Dr. Thom J. Hodgson, Committee Chair"

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Linear Program Construction Using Metamodeling
(2003-04-02) Parks, Judith-Marie Tyler; Dr. Russell E. King, Committee Member; Dr. Marc-David Cohen, Committee Member; Dr. Thom J. Hodgson, Committee Chair; Dr. Robert E. Young, Committee Member; Dr. Michael G. Kay, Committee Member
One of the most significant trends in data warehousing today is the integration of Metadata into data warehousing tools. A data warehouse is an area which exists on computer systems that is used for holding all of the data that an organization might possess. Metadata is 'data about data,' a dictionary and summary of data, that is held in a system catalog that is contained in a data warehouse. The purpose of this dissertation is four-fold: to show that by examining a database's system catalog, information can be extracted from it that can be used to develop a structure for building operations research applications. To show that a database's system catalog can be modified to hold the structure and the definition of a linear programming model. To show that a data table containing the linear programming model constraints can be automatically constructed based on the contents of the modified system catalog. And finally, to show that the modified system catalog can be used to guide a user in developing objective functions based on a given set of model constraints. Thus, the main contribution of the work is that it furthers the hybrid area of information technology/mathematical programming by exploiting metadata, as opposed to raw data, that is held in a data warehouse.
Process Improvement of a MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) Vehicle Production Line
(2008-05-28) Fink, J. Kingsley, Jr.; COL Tim Trainor, Ph.D., Committee Member; Dr. Steven D. Jackson, Committee Member; Dr. Thom J. Hodgson, Committee Chair; Dr. Russell E. King, Committee Member
Production Scheduling in Knitted Fabric Dyeing and Finishing: A Case Approach
(2005-04-07) Laoboonlur, Preecha; Dr. Henry L. W. Nuttle, Committee Member; Dr. Russell E. King, Committee Member; Dr. Thom J. Hodgson, Committee Chair; Dr. Kristin A. Thoney, Committee Member
The dyeing and finishing processes represent one of the most complicated scheduling problems existing in real production. The problem combines two difficult but challenging scheduling aspects together: a flexible job shop with sequence dependent setups. The process consists of multiple operations, which can have either single or parallel machines. Chemical and fabric pile contamination cause the sequence dependent setups. According to the business strategy of the case factory, the scheduling problem is categorized as two cases, no job priority and two-job priority classification (high and low). The scheduling objective is to minimize maximum lateness, Lmax. The fundamental structure used for solving the dyeing and finishing scheduling problem is the Virtual Factory plus family scheduling. The Virtual Factory is a simulation based job shop scheduling system developed at North Carolina State University. The scheduling heuristic used in the Virtual Factory is developed based on family scheduling. Jobs are grouped into families and then families are scheduled. The schedule is accomplished by switching the positions and splitting the family members. This dissertation intends to solve the real problem. Scheduling problems are generated using real problem characteristics. The experimentation indicates that with the advantages of fast computation time and heuristics modified easily, the best approach is to apply several versions of a heuristic to get the best possible solution.