It is known that the human stature and its related dimensions generally increase until the late teens or early twenties, remain relatively constant throughout early adulthood, and decline from early-to-middle adulthood into old age. However, there is exception that the length of the human ears, which continue to grow throughout life. In this study, 600 Korean male and female subjects aging from 17 to 89 were selected. Four different points of external ears including Pinna length, ear connection point length, Concha length, and Lobule thickness were measured along with other relative subjects' demographic data(e.g., age, stature, weight) to determine the relationship among these obtained data. The results showed that the age, sex, and different ethnic populations were functions of ear dimensions similar to the human stature. For example, the Pinna length increases as the age increases(r= 0.689, p<0.00l). The primary objective of this study was thus to provide anthropometric dimensions of Korean ear for the product designers and recommend the appropriate product design solutions in relation to human ear. Based on the results of this study, it is suggested that the continuing growth of the human body parts should be considered in the application of anthropometric data to the design of the things especially for human use.

In this paper, an efficient method is proposed to place the cooling lines(CLS) and ejector pins(EPS) of mold design. The other components of mold, except CLS and EPS, can be generated automatically by batch processing. But the placements and sizes of CLS and EPS depend on the shapes of a part, so that the design works of CLS and EPS should be processed interactively. Using the pre-defined reference points, the positions of CLS and EPS can be determined interactively. By the proposed method, the interference occurred during placing CLS and EPS can be avoided, and the proper lengths of them can be calculated automatically. The information of the positions and lengths are stored in BOM database for generating a machining data. The proposed method is implemented with Unigraphics API functions and C language, tested on Unigraphics V15.

In this paper, we apply AHP method to select long range technology alternatives for KEPCO. The input data was gathered by the questionnaire surveys answered by experts. The effectiveness and validity of the method were tested by comparing the results with those of the current selection procedure. We show that the proposed method can outperform the current method and can be applied to the real decision making process of the electric power company.

The Six-Sigma is now common word as a management innovation in every business. Many companies have practiced to the TPM in Korea. These companies have regarded the Six-Sigma as a new approach or redundant strategy for management. This paper suggests a model which contains how to unite TPM and Six-sigma to make a big synergy effect for the company which is on developing of TPM. This model based upon SAMSUNG CORNING as a process industry.

In this paper, we investigate the system performance when the voice traffic is constructed as the ATM Adaptation Layer type 2(AAL-2) and then it is transmitted to the Base Station Controller(BSC) from the Base Station Transceiver Subsystem(BTS) through El link in International Mobile Telecommunication-2000 (IMT-2000) network. For this purpose, we first briefly describe the architecture of the BTS and the BSC, and then model it as a queueing network. By simulation study, we present the required processing time at traffic control blocks and the timeout time which should be set for multiplexing the user packets in the LIU(Line Interface Unit). Further, we evaluate the performance of physical links and the timeout probability that user packets can not be multiplexed within the established timeout time, and the multiplexing gain. Finally, we present the number of voice users who can be simultaneously admitted on one El link and 99.9% value of the transmission delay from the Radio Channel Element(RCE) to the Selector & Transcoder Subsystem(STS).

A pattern recognition system is proposed to recognize characters in any type of Giro. The system consist of the character segmentation and the character recognition. Positional features from two round markers at the upper-right part and lower-left part of Giro is used for extracting character strings from images and RLE analysis is used if there are no round markers. A multi step combined method, which use a structural method and a statistical method, is used to improve recognition. The structural method apply rules on each characters, whereas a statistical method gives a different weighting vector to each pixel for improving the classification performance in regard to noises and distortions. The experimental results show that the proposed combined method has higher recognition rate, over than 98% even in cases that images are rotated about 10 degrees as well as have noises.

This paper considers the problem of sequencing printed circuit boards(PCBs) on an automatic surface mount device(SMD) placement machine in order to minimize total setup time. Since the total set of component feeders needed by all boards cannot be loaded simultaneously on the magazine, the setup must be made between two successive boards in the sequence. It is assumed that the setup time depends on the number of component feeders to be replaced in the magazine. An important characteristic is that each feeder occupies a different number of slots in the magazine. This problem is equivalent to travelling salesman problem(TSP) except that the distances between two cities, that is, the setup times between two boards, are not known in advance. So, TSP-based heuristics with new distance functions are presented and their performances are compared through various test problems. Computational results indicate that our heuristics outperform existing methods.

This paper deals with the problem of mixed-model sequencing on an assembly line. In this sequencing problem we want to minimize the risk of the conveyor stoppage and the total utility work. This paper applies genetic algorithm to solve the mixed-model sequencing problem which is formulated as an integer programming. The solution we get from this algorithm is compared with the solution of Tsai(1995)'s.

A methodology that determines the optimal shutdown time of a nuclear power plant is suggested. The shutdown time is decided considering the trade off between the cost of accident and the loss of profit due to the early shutdown. We adopt the bayesian approach in manipulating the model parameter that predicts the accidents. We build decision tree models and apply dynamic programming approach to decide whether to shutdown immediately or operate one more period. The branch parameters in decision trees are updated by bayesian approach. We apply real data to this model and provide the cost of accidents that guarantees the immediate shutdown.

This paper analyzes the effects of setup cost reduction in a dynamic lot-sizing model for a single-facility multi-product problem. In the model, demands for each product are known, no backlogging is allowed, and a single resource is employed. Also, setup cost is defined as a function of capital expenditure to invest in setup cost reduction. Furthermore, in each production period the facility (or plant) produces many products, each representing a fixed part of the involved production activity (or input resource quantity). In this paper, the structure of the optimal solution is characterized and an efficient algorithm is proposed for simultaneously determining the optimal lot size with reduced setup cost and the optimal investment in setup cost reduction. Also, the proposed algorithm is illustrated by a numerical example with a linear and an exponential setup reduction functions.

In this paper, we develope a genetic algorithm for the erection scheduling in shipbuilding. Erection, the final manufacturing stage of shipbuilding, involves the landing and joining of blocks at drydock. Since several ships are built simultaneously at the same drydock and they compete with the common constrained production resource such as labor, space, and crane, we should consider both ship-specifics and common resource constraints for the desirable erection scheduling. Ship erection should also satisfy the predetermined dock cycle given from higher level production planning. Thus, erection schedule of a ship can be represented as a PERT/CPM project network with its own deadline. Since production resources are shared, the erection scheduling become the so-called multi-project scheduling problem with limited resources, which can not be solved easily due to the large size of project network. We propose a function as a minimization of load index which represented the load deviation over time horizon considering the yard production strategy. For the optical parameter setting, we tried various experiments. We verified that the proposed approach was effective to deal with the erection scheduling problem in shipbuilding.

In this paper, the conceptual framework of IBS(Intelligent Building Systems) is redefined, and we propose two ANP(Analytic Network Process) models for ranking IBS. Traditional models have ranked IBS according to technical features or the number of elements in IBS. But, we consider relative functional importance among IBS elements for efficient building operation. According to the structure of interactive-relationship among IBS elements, we present two types of model. The one is Model A that is composed of both hierarchical and network structures. It has $12{\times}12$ supermatrix consists of interdependent relationship between 6 benefit elements(Productivity, Saving, Safety, Convenience, Pleasantness, Environment Affinity) and 6 IBS elements(Building Operation, Security, Safety, Telecommunication(TC), Office Automation(OA), other elements). Each of 6 IBS elements has subelements in hierarchical structure. The other is Model B that has $25{\times}25$ supermatrix consists of interdependent relationship between 6 benefit elements and 19 IBS sub elements. Merits and demerits of each model are discussed in detail.

As moulds and dies are manufactured through complex processes under the make-to-order production environment, it is very difficult that the manufacturing activities as like observance of the due date, trace of the progress, etc are controlled with a real time. In this paper, a schedule-planning system using the commercial software Microsoft Project 98 is developed to control the procedures of mould and die manufacturing with real time. Once an initial schedule is planned from the BOM information in the intranet, it is rescheduled by data collected from machines on the shop floor. The system is suitable to medium- or small-sized manufacturing companies as well as large-sized ones, because it can be installed with a low cost.

This study was conducted to test the significance of differences in the tactual difference thresholds and perception time for tactual direction type and finger type and radius size based on small circular button. The results show that difference threshold of vertical tactual perception is significantly greater than horizontal perception, but there are no significant differences in difference thresholds among finger types and radius sizes. Also, there are no significant differences in tactual perception time among tactual direction types, finger types, and radius types. These findings are applicable for tactual user interface design.

EDI(Electronic Data Interchange) allows the exchange of business information and computer-processable data in a standard, structured format electronically between organizational entities. EDI handles the restructuring of a business document into the standard format so that it can be transmitted from one computer to another. This paper identifies features and technologies of web browsed electronic document exchange system as follows 1) the fundamental technologies that consists of the EDI technologies, the Internet/Web technologies, the security/authentication techniques, and the XML implementation technologies. 2) the functions that consists of the document standards, transfer technology of the document, encryption and authentication 3) the implemented Web-EDI systems that consists of document generation module, encryption and authentication module, transfer module, acknowledgement module, administration module. In this paper, the Web-based EDI system implemented from the researched technologies will be installed on the EDI servers owned by corporate customers and enable the exchange of documents between each installed companies.

This paper deals with a computer-aided product arrangement system in the plant industry. The arrangement schedule may be performed manually. But this is inadaptable to change and difficult to store the results, which eventually requires time consuming and ineffective works. Using computerbased scheduling system, problems mentioned above can be resolved. In the system, the products can be arranged in a workarea with an automatic algorithm as well as manual operation using mouse dragging. In the automatic scheduling algorithm, the position of a product is determined by considering the existing products and material handling costs. Then the scheduled results are stored in DB and can be manipulated at any time.

Time-tradeoff measures and healthy years equivalents were assessed and compared through an empirical study based on Multi-attribute utility theory. The study included 33 student subjects as a pilot study, and 54 end-stage renal disease patients in Wisconsin. The two outcome measures were compared with the survival duration of 1, 5, and 10 years. The results of the study show that the time-tradeoff method and the two-stage method did not lead to the same numerical quantities, although they aim to measure the same quantities (equivalent numbers of healthy years) theoretically. The healthy years equivalents involved more inconsistencies, and were less reliable than the time-tradeoff measures. Overestimation of the healthy years equivalents was observed. This seemed to be caused by the complex procedure of the two-stage method as well as by the preferences assessment biases. Based on the study experiences, the time-tradeoff measure would be recommended for problems involving generic medical applications and health policies.

We studied a model house system on cyberspace using JAVA and VRML in this paper. In the system, users can not only browse the model house using a web browser but also choose options that they want to install in the final house and the chosen options are combined with the figure of the model house on the terminal window in real time. In addition, the information of the chosen options are transferred to a database on a server machine at the construction company and the company can use the information for the customer management. The developed system can be used by a simple EC system since it includes duplex information paths.