Negative process yield is an unexplained expense that does have a significant impact on profits. As like most other manufacturing processes, there are multiple processing operations that a finished good can be exposed to during the course of the entire process. Negative process yield can occur during these known operations but without accurate reporting and data collection, it becomes a moot point. In order to investigate this unexplainable phenomena properly, understanding of what could possibly cause this from occurring must be achieved. In the case of the North American fastener manufacturing plant, missing pieces that are not accounted for through the normal scrap reporting process are often referred to as “negative process yield”. Loss of material from the various processes has been identified as a problem for the North American fastener manufacturing plant. The set of tools that assist in the identification and steady elimination of waste also referred to as lean principles and techniques must be used during the study. This study will examine and analyze the data collected and associated with the loss of unexplained production pieces throughout the production process and what the financial implications or effects have on margins or profits. The Taguchi Design of Experiment (DOE) method is to be used for the experiment. Roy stated that the main focus of the application of DOE is to improve quality. The definition of quality varies widely depending on the applications, but it must be defined before any experimental technique can be produced with meaningful results. Taguchi offers a generalized definition for quality of performance. He regards performance as the major component of product or process quality. A reduced variation results in a reduction in scrap, less rejection of product, and fewer warranty returns, consequently reducing costs, and improving profits and improving customer satisfaction. The result of the study indicated that the form tool was the most significant factor and the levels or grades of material used for those tools could have an effect on the machining process. There was also an indication that the drilling operation needed to be focused on and that the grade of material used, either carbide or high speed steel, be seriously considered based on the application and desired speeds and feeds of the drill depending on the substrate material of the fastener.

The purpose of the study was to determine the perspective of the Business Operation team and IT team during project team communication and interaction towards an awareness of the critical business processes and systems needed to ensure project success. For companies to remain competitive, a catalyst for growth through software development projects is required. Impediments to successful software project outcomes include inefficient communication, onesided team communication, siloed team interaction, lack of business knowledge, lack of information sharing, and insufficient training resources. This study was a Convergent Parallel Mixed Methods Design with survey questions for the quantitative component and open-ended questions for the qualitative part. The mixed methods research study included an in-depth review of the Business Operation teams' and IT teams' perspectives concerning team communication and interaction. An Independent Samples T-test was conducted to understand the differences between the Business Operation team and the IT team regarding General Communication, Team Communication, Team Interaction, and Project Outcomes. The T-test results indicated a difference in the perspective between the groups with General Communication but no difference in the perspective of Team Communication, Team Interaction, and Project Outcomes. The themes emerging from the qualitative component indicated an opportunity for training to acquire the knowledge and skills required to understand the underlying business process to facilitate a software project discussion.

There are a number of potential distractions for operators when viewing plant status-monitoring information in a petrochemical plant: background noises of other employees speaking, sounds of manufacturing equipment and processes and other ambient noises like HVAC and building operation noise. When the monitoring equipment for a chemical or petrochemical plant is not designed to take into account that operators can be distracted by this noise, there is a potential safety hazard for the people in that work environment. Alarms can be missed and fundamental information can be overlooked. SCADA is “a type of control system that collects and displays data and allows users to manipulate and control the system from a distant location (Koffskey, 2010).” SCADA is used in various industries such as energy, food and beverage, manufacturing, oil and gas, power, recycling, transportation, and water and waste water (Gould, 2017). In the petrochemical industry, the status of individual instruments is monitored by one or a few supervisors at a central command station with a SCADA screen. The focus of this research is to determine if there is a difference in user eye behavior (Time to First Fixation, Fixation Frequency per AOI, Gaze Duration Mean, and Gaze Percentage per AOI) between no (minimal) ambient noise and ambient noise for users when viewing alerts/warnings on a petrochemical manufacturing SCADA user interface? 100 participants (with a science, engineering, or manufacturing background) were asked to watch two sets of simulated SCADA prototypes (half with petrochemical manufacturing noise and half without) while wearing a set of eye-tracking glasses. The Wilconox Rank Sum Test determined that there was a statistically significant difference in the data sets (with three of the four dependent variables) demonstrating that sound is statistically significant in distracting operators watching a petrochemical SCADA user interface.

Recent research of information technology (IT) end-user cybersecurity-related risky behaviors has focused on items such as IT user decision-making, impulsiveness, and internet use as predictors of human cyber vulnerability. Theories which guide user human behavioral intent, such as protection motivation theory (PMT, introduced by Rogers, 1975) and technology threat avoidance theory (TTAT, introduced by Liang and Xue, 2009) have not been widely investigated as antecedents of risky cybersecurity behavior (RScB). This dissertation describes exploratory research that analyzed and evaluated PMT/TTAT factors as predictors of RScB by enterprise IT users. This work uniquely contributes to the literature by investigating associations between accepted behavioral motivation models and RScB. Findings are intended to provide human resource development (HRD) practitioners and researchers innovative techniques to identify factors which may compel enterprise IT users to avoid risky cybersecurity behaviors in the workplace. Findings, based on survey responses by 184 working professionals in the United States, were largely consistent with previous TTAT-focused works. New insights arose regarding the predictive impact of perceived cost as a predictor of RScB (p = .003) with small-to-medium effect sizes. Predictability was further leveraged using discriminant analysis to predict RScB category membership derived from k-means clustering. Significant outcomes were noted with practical utility. An overarching goal of this study was to more fully inform the HRD community of scholar-practitioners of the urgent need to design, deliver, implement, and evaluate initiatives that could be utilized to diminish inappropriate and costly cybersecurity behaviors in various workplace environments.

This study sought to determine if and to what extent strategy integration was related to the financial indicators profit margin ratio and inventory turnover for publically traded manufacturing organizations in Oklahoma. Current strategy theory states that the more thoroughly an organization adopts a given strategy the greater the effect will be on these financial indicators. Hence the need to more fully understand the extent and rates at which strategy integration effects these indicators. This study looked at perceived strategy integration scores for publically traded Oklahoma manufacturing organizations taken from June to August 2014 and financial indicators from 2012 and 2013. The perceived strategy integration scores were obtained via survey while the financial indicators were calculated using Section 10-K filings from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (US SEC or SEC). Reliable financial information is not publically available for many private organizations, so, they were excluded from the study. Summary analysis of the data indicated that strategies were not in use in equal proportions with Niche Differentiation being most popular by far. Market focus appeared to be an indicator of inventory turnover standard deviation with Broad focus and Combination strategy groups having lower standard deviation. While the product focus appeared to indicate profit margin ratio range with Low Cost strategies having lower profit margins. After performing additional analysis it was found that performance enhancing technologies and other complicating factors may have had a larger impact than previously believed. A correlation was unable to be established for most strategies. For the Niche Low Cost Strategy a relationship was found where profit margins decreased 1.634% for each 1 point increase in perceived strategy integration score. It was also found that the Broad Differentiation Strategy it was found that inventory turns increased 0.7006 turns for every 1 point increase in perceived strategy integration score. No other strategies were found to have correlation coefficients that were statistically different from the null hypothesis. However, anecdotal evidence was found in support of several other of Porter’s theories.

Additive Manufacturing rapid reproductive systems are gaining popularity within the manufacturing industry. One of the many benefits of such systems has been the exploration of building practical sacrificial patterns for investment casted metals. Methods such as, Castform and Quickcast, has been developed for selective laser sintering and Stereolithography apparatus technologies respectively. Research has demonstrated significant cost savings when Additive manufacturing rapid reproductive systems are utilized for customized or small batch production of sacrificial patterns. The purpose of this study was to develop a methodology for evaluating quality characteristics of Fused Deposition Modeling. Since Fused Deposition Modeling have been demonstrated by a number of experimental studies as a viable alternative to wax sacrificial patterns, this study explored the effects of wall thickness and raster resolution on quality characteristics such as, diametric accuracy, cylindricity, and concentricity. The results of the study indicated raster resolution had no effect on the measured quality characteristics, however, the ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis tests showed statistical significance (α=0.05) for wall thickness of cylindricity of a small diameter (0.5”) and concentricity of two cylindrical features of diameters 0.5” and 1”. Moreover, the main contributions of this study involved the development of an accurate and robust design of experiment methodology. In addition, implications and recommendations for practice were also discussed.

In the last four or five decades, increased political and social pressure has been placed on commercial and residential consumers to reduce consumption of fossil fuels and invest in alternative methods of energy production for electricity, heating and cooling. Commercially, wind turbines and photovoltaic energy production equipment has sprung up all over the country. Other forms of energy production such as hydroelectric and geothermal energy production facilities have also been built. During this time however, very few residential ‘green energy’ investments have been made. Only in recent years have residential home owners begun to “wet their feet” on ‘green’ energy equipment. Cost has been the major factor. Of late though, costs have been coming down and efficiency has been going up making home owners begin to sense that alternative energy may now be entering the realm of economic feasibility. Unfortunately, home owners have had no reliable or credible tools to assess economic viability of such systems. The purpose of this research is to develop a tool to access the potential of alternative energy sources and test it statistically by surveying subjects in five different ‘green’ energy categories. Since atmospheric (air-to-air) heat pumps have been around for many years and represent a mature heating and cooling technology, upgrading older inefficient HVAC equipment to new high efficiency atmospheric heat pumps is the category used to baseline the experiment. Ground source heat pumps and direct solar heating systems were modeled and compared to the baseline. Wind energy and photovoltaic energy production systems were modeled, surveyed and compared to using only grid supplied electricity. Results show that in four of the five cases tested, the less mature ‘green’ energy equipment; photovoltaic solar, direct solar and ground source heat pump equipment are in general not economically viable without tax rebates to significantly lower the net investment. Setback rules and environmental and aesthetic ordinances against siting them in those counties severely restrict the population of wind energy devices so that an effective test of this category using the model could not be done. The model performed well with the baseline data. Performance of the model with ground source heat pumps was reasonable, but improvements in the model reflecting differing features of ground source heat pumps need to be made. Performance of the model with photovoltaic energy production equipment was also good. Extending the test population to all fifty states and extending the utility bill test range from one year to five years will provide much more useful data to test and improve the model. Although the model development and testing done in this work only represents a small contribution to the bridging of a large gap in consumer confidence in green energy products, it represents a big step into an area that very few have attempted to venture into.

Sustainability is increasingly becoming an integral part of how organizations communicate their business operation to stakeholders. As it is common knowledge that organizations are more inclined to invest in programs that contribute to their bottom-line, this study presents an analysis of the relationship between corporate sustainability behaviors and their impact on financial performance. The sample size was 40 United States (U.S.) aerospace companies, selected from the “Top 100 Aerospace Companies” world-wide in a report produced by Candesic consulting firm in 2012. Of the 40 U.S. companies, 21 were found to provide some form of sustainability report. Quantitative and qualitative instruments were constructed to identify and measure the following sustainability behaviors: 1) Report versus Non-Reporting Status, 2) sustainability initiative integration (SII), 3) sustainability strategic integration (SSI), 4) trends in sustainability reporting, and 5) Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) versus Non-GRI status. Archival data such as sustainability reports and financial reports were used to compare the relationship between the five independent variables and the 5-year profit-margin ratio mean of the companies in the study. All financial information was obtained from Reuters, a financial and business news source. After retrieving and analyzing all the reports, it was found that there is no significant relationship between the sustainability behaviors identified and financial performance. Although, the sustainability reporting trends indicate a slight relationship between reporting start date and the 5-year average profit margin mean, this researcher understands that there may be other factors involved. Further, there appears to be some relationship among the independent variables Sustainability Initiative Integration (SII), Sustainability Strategic iv Integration (SSI) and GRI status. For instance, organizations that use the GRI metrics tend to provide a strong message indicating that sustainability is aligned with the business goals, which influence how they market and innovate products and services. The strength of this study is the qualitative components that will contribute to further understanding and development of corporate sustainability within a multidisciplinary context. The study created instruments primarily for the purpose of determining the impact corporate sustainability behavior has on financial performance while simultaneously providing new insight on new and changing organizational values and leadership communication. A corporate sustainability report is a comprehensive document that gives external and internal stakeholders’ information on how organizations are responding to social, economic, and environmental issues. This study illustrates how a sustainability report reflects an organization’s level of involvement in environmental, social, and economic issues which are relevant to any academic environment that seek to gain more understanding of how businesses pay attention to societal demands while striving to have competitive advantage in the global market.

The improvement of infrastructure by a public agency is to ensure satisfaction of the general public using such infrastructure, based on available funds. In order to implement and sustain the public good, an efficient project delivery method or the assessment of existing project delivery methods used to develop such infrastructure is necessary. Project delivery method is a process that defines the relationship between parties involved in a specific project. Any of the methods could affect a project budget, schedule, quality and the involvement of the project owner. This study investigated the impact of project delivery methods used by different type/class of railroad organization, which include passenger and freight railroad organizations on completed public highway-rail intersection projects in New York State, within a period of 10 years. Two hundred and fifty six (256) projects with similar scope, which were performed at independent locations, were selected. The research questions were answered based on hypotheses, which were tested with non parametric test using SPSS Statistical package version 20. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to determine the statistical significant difference between the total cost of Highway-Rail Intersection projects when Design-Build and Design-Bid-Build methods were used by railroad companies. The Kruskall Wallis test was used to determine the statistically significant difference between the total cost of projects performed by Passenger, Class 1 (Large), Class 2 (Regional) and Class 3 (Short-Line railroads) railroad companies operating in New York State, and a post-hoc test depicts the significant differences between the railroad organizations that differ. Findings indicated that there were statistical significant differences in total costs for project delivery methods as well as types/class of railroad organizations. It was recommended that the New York State Department of Transportation should partner with the railroad organizations for share cost agreement, develop short or long term plans to either close railroad grade crossings or grade separate crossings along railroad corridors so that passenger and Class 1 railroad organizations can significantly contribute to HRI improvements. Furthermore, NYSDOT need to adequately monitor HRI projects performed by the railroad organizations.

Lean six sigma is a hybrid continuous improvement methodology that is not standardized and is not well understood. A review of literature found that the spectrum of lean six sigma approaches extends from those that are lean dominant to those that are six sigma dominant. This research illuminated the lean six sigma methodology by methodically assessing the literature via text mining and cluster analysis. Text mining was used to establish the degree to which lean six sigma models, as described in articles published in the International Journal of Lean Six Sigma, are lean dominant versus six sigma dominant. The iterative cluster analysis was used to identify clusters of articles that were interpretable. A cluster of lean dominant lean six sigma articles was identified and statistically validated as being distinct from other models. It was determined that characteristics of a lean dominant lean six sigma include the text mining key words “waste”, “value”, and “kaizen.” The research also found that these lean dominant lean six sigma articles ascertain lean as the dominant philosophy and six sigma as a subordinate tool used in achieving the lean objectives. The findings of the research as well extrapolation of the literature informed a recommended lean six sigma model. The recommended model is lean dominant and consists of two subordinate methods – six sigma and statistical process control. The three synergistic approaches not only each serve in their own way to manifest process improvements, they also all contribute to organizational learning which is considered a chief contributor to competitive advantage.