This work is to study the behavior of certain storage systems in which items with different turnover rates are stored. In particular, we assume that items can be divided into two types: high and low turnover. We try to find simple policies that induce favorable zoning, which will reduce the storage and retrieval distance of items. We define a desirable property of a good policy which we call asymptotically efficient, and show that the Zone-z policy is asymptotically efficient if the zone size is proportional to the expected number of high turnover items in the system in equilibrium.

The performance of Storage assignment policies is traditionally evaluated with the storage capacity of and AS/RS taken as given. However, the storage capacity is closely related to the inventory model used in real situations. This paper presents a model of evaluating the performance of three storage policies(random storage, class-based storage, and full turnover-based storage) considering production lot-sizing simultaneously with storage assignment of inventory items. The objective of the model is to achieve a balance of warehouse throughput and space requirements such that a total of material handling cost, production ordering cost, and inventory holding cost is minimized. The effects of the parameters involved in the model are investigated on the performance of each storage policy through example problems.

A possible adverse effect on the likelihood of front-seat occupant fatalities from unbelted rear-seat occupants in frontal crashes is investigated using Fatal Accident Reporting System data. Passenger cars which sustained frontal damage and which did not roll over are included in this analysis. Of the frontally damaged cars, only cars containing a driver and a right-front passenger are selected. Then, from these cars, the following three cases are considered: a) left-rear occupant present, b) right-rear occupant present, and c) no one else in the car. Cars belonging to a) or b) contain only three occupants, and those belonging to the last case contain only two occupants. In addition, all occupants are unbelted. To estimate the influence of rear-seat occupants on front-seat occupant fatalities, relative risks of driver and right-front passenger fatalities are compared pairwise across these three cases. The adverse influence of unbelted rear-seat occupants on the likelihood of unbelted front-seat occupant fatalities in frontal crashes is estimated to be 7.9% ${\pm}$ 45%(the error limits indicate one standard error). In other words, front-seat occupant fatalities are increased 7.9% in frontal crashes due to the loadings from unbelted rear-seat occupants. This suggests that the usage of safety belts by rear-seat occupants not only may extend their own lives but also helps in reducing the fatalities of front-seat occupants seated in front of them.

Common assumption we frequently encounter in early models of software reliability is that no new faults are introduced during the fault removal process. In real life, however, there are situations in which new faults are introducted as a result of imperfect debugging. This study alleviating this assumption by introducting the probability of perfect error-correction is an extension of Littlewood's work. In this model, the system reliability, failure rates, mean time to failure and average failure frequency are obtained. Here, when the probability of perfect error-correction is one, the results appear identical with those of the previous studies. In the respect that the results of previous studies are special cases of this model, the model developed can be considered as a generalized one.

This paper describes a procedure for optimizing the route selection and production conditions in alternate process plans under a cellular manufacturing environment. The type of production is mainly production-to-order which deals with unexpected products as the changes factor. The flexible cellular manufacturing can be viewed as a complete unification of both flexible manufacturing process and flexible production management. The integrated problem for designing flexible cellular manufacturing associated with determining the optimal values of the machining speeds, overtime, and intercell flow is formulated as Nonlinear Mixed Integer Programming(NMIP) in order to minimize total production change cost. This is achieved by introducing the marginal cost analysis into the NMIP, which will compute the optimal machining speed, overtime, intercell flow, and routing. The application of this procedure offers greater flexibility to take advantage of the cellular manufacturing due to the optimum use of resources. A solution procedure for this problem was developed and a numerical example is included.

The concept of rapid prototyping intended for a significant reduction in cost and lead time becomes even more practical with the recent development of various equipments to make the concept concrete. For the purpose of real application of commercially available SLA(stereolithography apparatus), this paper is intended to develop the standard conversion procedure from CAD data to the input data for SLA. While the procedure presented in this paper is based on CAD system "CATIA" and SLA of 3D systems, Inc., which are being used in authors' company DAEWOO Motor Co., Ltd., the basic concept of this paper can be applied to any other CAD systems and machines of using stereolithography process. The algorithm presented in this paper is classified into two stages-node sampling and triangulation. First of all, point data are sampled through the node sampling procedure, and then these are triangulated so that the input data for SLA operation is finally generated. The suggested method is devised in a way to meet the input requirements of SLA and more importantly consume less computation time and generate less number of input data for SLA.

After much research on qualitative reasoning, the problem of ambiguities still hampers the practicality of this important AI tool. In this paper, the sources of ambiguities are examined in depth with a systems engineering point of view and possible directions to disambiguation are suggested. This includes some modeling strategies and an architecture of temporal inference for building unambiguous qualitative models of practical complexity. It is argued that knowledge of multiple levels in abstraction hierarchy must be reflected in the modeling to resolve ambiguities by introducing the designer's decisions. The inference engine must be able to integrate two different types of temporal knowledge representation to determine the partial ordering of future events. As an independent quantity management system that supports the suggested modeling approach, LIQUIDS(Linear Quantity-Information Deriving System) is described. The inference scheme can be conjoined with ordinary rule-based reasoning systems and hence generalized into many different domains.

Flowshop scheduling problem is known to be NP-complete. Since the optimization apporach like branch-and-bound is limited by exponentially growing computation time, many heuristic methods have been developed. Total tardiness is one of the criteria that the researchers have recently considered in flowshop scheduling. There, however, are few literatures which studied the general (m machine)-flowshop scheduling under the total tardiness criterion. In this paper, a heuristic scheduling method to minimize total tardiness at the (m machine, n job)-flowshop is presented. A heuristic value function is proposed to be used as a dispatching criterion in initial schedule generation. And the schedule improving procedure, by pairwise interchange of tardy job with the job right ahead of it, is introduced. Illustrative examles and simulated results are presented.

An expert system was developed as a framework of integrating diverse and multifactored ergonomic knowledge to investigate its effectiveness in ergonomic workplace design and evolution. Although numerous computer-assisted approaches have been made to overcome the lack of integrated design principles, those models being used require very specific information of various design activities that may not be available in the design stage. On the other hand, an expert system would be an effective design aid that is capable of guiding the designer to solve a problem. However, most expert systems lack detailed evaluation capabilities due to a qualitative nature of inference mechanisms. Furthermore, those approaches were independently developed, focusing mostly on a single aspect such as biomechanics, physiology, etc. In this paper, a design framework was developed which takes advantage of expert system metholologies, a relational data base and existing ergonomic models. The pattern-directed, rule-based expert system allows the designer to gradually formulate and subsequently evaluate workplace design. A comprehensive and modularized knowledge base was built incorporating biomechanics, physiology and psychophysics, which is, in turn, capable of accessing not only qualitative knowledge but complex analytic evaluation models and massive information in the data base through an interface. A conflict resolution strategy using multiple criteria decision-making schemes was also employed to reconcile multiple design alternatives.

AGVS(Automated Guided Vehicle Systems) in material handling have been used widely since late 1970s. Implementation of an AGVS generally requires substantial study to optimize the design and performance of guide-paths. Traditional mathematical approaches have been used with limited success to analyze AGVS. These approaches, however, do not provide a practical tool for guide-path designers. This paper presents a new approach based on rules in designing and assessing AGV guide-paths to improve the design of a closed-loop layout. A framework for the integrated approach is proposed, problem solving procedures are explained, and a case study is reported to demonstrate the framework. Deletion of seldom used guide-paths, and addition of bypasses to solve the congestion problem, are conducted interactively and iteratively through simulation experiments. To visualize the results, a graphic control program is developed and integrated with the AutoMod/AutoGram simulation package.

In order to evaluate task loads required by a majority of manual materials handling(MMH) jobs, we have performed the assessment of arm strength, leg strength and torso strength for Korean workers in a scientific and systematic manner. Two hundred and eighty five employees from two local manufacturing plants in Pohang participated in this project. Maximum voluntary strengths were assessed for the aforementioned three postures, and these data were classified by gender. These strength data were also used to generate a strength predicition model, which can estimate the maximum voluntary strength for a population with specific age, height and weight. These strength data will be used for the prevention of occupational injuries which are frequently incurred by overexertion in manual materials handling jobs.

This paper presents an automatic setup planning system for turning operation of symmetric rotational parts. The proposed setup planning system determines workpiece holding method, number of setup, clamping surface, and workpiece holding device by using design data, part description database and part feature recognition information. The workpiece holding method is based on functional name and length/diameter ratio of the given part, and number of setup is determined by part profile type and its technological constraints. Clamping surface and workpiece holding device are determined by using information about the results of workpiece holding method and number of setup, and capacity of workpiece holding devices. A case study is performed to show the performance of the proposed system.

In parts assignment problem for FMS, both the parts and the tools required to process the parts are assigned to the machine tools for a specified planning period. This is an important decision-making problem for a short-term production planning of FMS. In this paper, parts assignment problem for FMS was analyzed to determine the optimal plan which has the adaptability to production fluctuation. A mathematical model was developed for determing the parts and the tools required for the machine tools which compose FMS, and the model was analyzed to obtain optimal solution. In addition, the vality and feasibility of the computational algorithm was examined by solving a numerical example.

The control policy algorithm is examined and compared in this study. This research investigates a two state partially observable Markov chain in which only deterioration can occur and for which the only actions possible are to replace or to live alone. The goal of this research is to compare the computational efficiencies of control policy algorithm. One is Sondik's algorithms and the other one is jump algorithm.