The objective of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of Crew Resource Management (CRM) training program for operators in the Main Control Room (MCR) simulator of APR-1400 Nuclear Power Plant. The experiments were conducted for two different crews of operators performing six different emergency operating scenarios during four-week period. Each crew consisted of the five operators: senior reactor operator, safety technical advisor, reactor operator, turbine operator, and electric operator. All crews (Crew A and B) participated in the training program for the technical knowledge and skills which were required to operate the simulator of the MCR during the first week. To verify the effectiveness of the CRM training program; however, only Crew A was selected to attend the CRM training after the technical knowledge and skills training. The results of the experiments showed that the CRM training program improved the individual attitudes of Crew A significantly. Team skills of Crew A were found to be significantly better than those of Crew B. The CRM training did not have positive effects on enhancing the individual performance of Crew A; however, as compared to that of Crew B. Implication of these findings was discussed further in detail.

We revisit the assembly block storage location assignment problem (ABSLAP) at a shipyard, in order to compensate for the deficiency in performance verification of the heuristic ABSLAP algorithm developed by the previous study. In this paper, we formulate a mathematical programming model of the ABSLAP, refine elaborately the heuristic ABSLAP algorithm, and show the performance of the developed mathematical programming model and the revised heuristic ABSLAP algorithm. In addition, we explain simulation experiments conducted using the revised heuristic ABSLAP algorithm to investigate the influences of block stockyard layouts and production schedule instability on the block stockyard operations.

As product quality and yield are essential factors in semiconductor manufacturing, monitoring the main manufacturing steps is a critical task. For the purpose, FDC(Fault detection and classification) is used for diagnosing fault states in the processes by monitoring data stream collected by equipment sensors. This paper proposes an FDC model based on decision tree which provides if-then classification rules for causal analysis of the processing results. Unlike previous decision tree approaches, we reflect the structural aspect of the data stream to FDC. For this, we segment the data stream into multiple subregions, define structural features for each subregion, and select the features which have high relevance to results of the process and low redundancy to other features. As the result, we can construct simple, but highly accurate FDC model. Experiments using the data stream collected from etching process show that the proposed method is able to classify normal/abnormal states with high accuracy.

Six sigma innovation activities have been deployed in the engineering, management, and R&D sectors in an aerospace production company. For the success of total innovation, the company realized that it is necessary to involve the field workers in the six sigma innovation activities. In this paper small group activities in the aerospace production company is introduced. The implementation system, project evaluation and compensation system, and future directions are presented.

Assembly line has been recognized as an efficient production system in mass production. However, the recent production environment characterized as mass customization urges production managers to transform a long assembly line to a number of short assembly cells. To maximize the utilization of resources in an assembly cell, it is important to have the line balanced. This paper presents a bucket brigade-based assembly cell. Bucket brigade is a way of coordinating workers who progressively perform a set of assembly operations on a flow line. Each worker follows a simple rule: perform assembly operations on a product until the next worker downstream takes it over; then go back to the previous worker upstream to take over a new assembly job. In this way, the line balances itself. The bucket brigade assembly cell is analyzed and compared with traditional assembly lines and general assembly cells. The paper also discusses some prerequisite requirements and limitations when the bucket brigade assembly cells are employed.

An effective management for reverse flows of products such as reuse, repair and disposal, has become an important issue for every aspect of business. In this paper, we study the Location-Routing Problem (LRP) in the multi-stage closed-loop supply chain network. The closed-loop supply chain in this study integrated both forward and reverse flows. In forward flow, a factory, Distribution Center (DC) and retailer are considered as usual. Additionally in reverse flow, we consider the Central Returns collection Center (CRC) and disposal facility. We propose a mixed integer programming model for the design of closed-loop supply chain integrating both forward and reverse flows. Since the LRP belongs to an NP-hard problem, we suggest a heuristic algorithm based on genetic algorithm. For some test problems, we found the optimal locations and routes by changing the numbers of retailers and facility candidates. Furthermore, we compare the efficiencies between open-loop and closed-loop supply chain networks. The results show that the closed-loop design is better than the open one in respect to the total routing distance and cost. This phenomenon enlarges the cut down effect on cost as an experimental space become larger.

This paper considers a two-component assembly system that makes different types of purchasing contracts by component type and studies the issue of coordinating those contracts. Acquisition of type 1 component is based on the long-term contract. In contrast, type 2 component is intermittently purchased under the sort-term contract. We identify the structural properties of the optimal short-term contract and investigate how the changes in system parameters affect the optimal performance. To provide managerial insights, we compare the short-term and long-term contracts for type 2 component and discuss the conditions that make the short-term contract preferable to the long-term contract. We also present a result which shows that coordinating the contracts of type 1 and type 2 components can be significantly profitable over uncoordinating them.

As R&D environment was changed, the research through Cyberinfrastructure emerged as a new paradigm. Advanced countries such as U.S. and U.K. invested heavily in the system for advancing R&D by building national Cyberinfrastructure. It is required to analyze how to build and utilize Cyberinfrastructure in science and technology. This paper aims to investigate and analyze the utilization status and demand of Cyberinfrastructure and to propose directions for operating it in Korea. This study is expected to be a principle foundation for decision making about developing it.

In this study, we propose an improved group location tracking scheme (GLS) called integrated GLS (IGLS) which, in addition to the group location registration of the GLS, sends an integrated group registration message to a virtual visitor location register (VVLR) instead of sending an individual group registration message. This integrated procedure of proposed scheme leads registration cost of group registration and group location registration to be reduced significantly. Numerical results demonstrate that our proposed IGLS outperforms conventional GLS and delayed GLS (dGLS). The IGLS can be applied effectively on public transportation systems such as subway, train and bus.