Risk analysis methodology survey

NASA regulations require that formal risk analysis be performed on a program at each of several milestones as it moves toward full-scale development. Program risk analysis is discussed as a systems analysis approach, an iterative process (identification, assessment, management), and a collection of techniques. These techniques, which range from simple to complex network-based simulation were surveyed. A Program Risk Analysis Handbook was prepared in order to provide both analyst and manager with a guide for selection of the most appropriate technique

Federal incentives for industrial modernization: Historical review and future opportunities

Concerns over the aging of the U.S. aerospace industrial base led DOD to introduce first its Technology Modernization (Tech Mod) Program, and more recently the Industrial Modernization Incentive Program (IMIP). These incentives include productivity shared savings rewards, contractor investment protection to allow for amortization of plant and equipment, and subcontractor/vendor participation. The purpose here is to review DOD IMIP and to evaluate whether a similar program is feasible for NASA and other non-DOD agencies. The IMIP methodology is of interest to industrial engineers because it provides a structured, disciplined approach to identifying productivity improvement opportunities and documenting their expected benefit. However, it is shown that more research on predicting and validating cost avoidance is needed

Supplier Management in Service Industry: What can be Learned from Automotive Manufacturing?

The objective of this chapter is to describe how many of the supplier management practices of the U.S. automotive industry can provide learning points for those who manage service organizations. After a review of the four service sectors (distributive, producer, social, and personal services), we define supplier management. The three main functions within supplier management—control, improvement, and planning—are illustrated and discussed. The suppliers for a specific service are even more diverse than those cited for an automotive OEM; many services use suppliers from each of the other service sectors. Consistent with automotive OEMs, service companies outsource all three categories of supplies—goods, services, and software—though the proportions and contribution of each supply category to operational excellence may differ. Service operations experience waste, and we review the accepted list of eight wastes for service operations, noting that each of these wastes could be caused by a supplier. Essential practices of supplier management for a service industry are organized around the concept of customer-supplier partnership, a six-step hierarchy first identified for automotive OEMs. With the addition of two more imperatives, assure service dependability and manage the service supply chain, we explain how these eight practices may be adapted to services

Risk identification and reduction in integrated product teams

This brief report summarizes research and planning conducted during Summer 1993 for MSFC on the subjects of risk identification, assessment, and management. Research findings are presented, citing useful references. The major output of this work, the AXAF-S Project Risk Management Plan is outlined

Systems engineering process and organization assessment

The purpose of this report is to briefly summarize the results of an eight week assessment of NASA/MSFC Phase A and Phase B systems engineering processes, methodologies, and activities. Specifically, fourteen inconsistencies or weaknesses were identified and recommendations for corrective action were generated. A 1.5 hour briefing on these results was given in EL51 on 8-11-92; that documentation is available from the author or either NASA Colleague

A Service Management Metric with Origin in Plant Management

The discipline of industrial engineering (IE) was originated in the US by Frederick W. Taylor, who first applied what he termed scientific management to machine shop management in the 1880s. IE expanded world-wide with applications of work measurement to all manner of manufacturing, then to services. A century later, as the Japanese practice of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) became known in the US, the associated equipment management metric Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) became well-known as a production metric that could be applied to individual manufacturing machines, production lines, and the overall production system. In this chapter, illustrations of the calculation of OEE are provided, along with modification of the three OEE inputs (availability, performance efficiency, and quality rate) to create a new service management metric Overall Service Effectiveness (OSE). Definitions and measures of service quality are reviewed. The first published application of OSE was to a city public transportation system, and is reviewed as a prototype. Essentially, applications of OSE require the industrial engineer to define service-specific measures of availability, processing rate, and quality at the management’s level of interest: work station, process, or system. The data collected to calculate OSE will also point toward actions that would improve OSE

Las Vegas metropolitan area social survey 2010 highlights

UNLV sociologists conducted the Las Vegas Metropolitan Area Social Survey (LVMASS) to identify the socio-spatial distribution of attitudes and attributes relevant to urban sustainability in the Las Vegas Valley. The project goal is to understand how Las Vegas residents think about urban sustainability issues across three dimensions: 1) natural environment; 2) community and quality of life; 3) economy

Atomic-resolution spectroscopic imaging of ensembles of nanocatalyst particles across the life of a fuel cell

The thousandfold increase in data-collection speed enabled by aberration-corrected optics allows us to overcome an electron microscopy paradox - how to obtain atomic-resolution chemical structure in individual nanoparticles, yet record a statistically significant sample from an inhomogeneous population. This allowed us to map hundreds of Pt-Co nanoparticles to show atomic-scale elemental distributions across different stages of the catalyst aging in a proton-exchange-membrane fuel cell, and relate Pt-shell thickness to treatment, particle size, surface orientation, and ordering.Comment: 28 pages, 5 figures, accepted, nano letter

Where bias begins: a snapshot of police officers’ beliefs about factors that influence the investigative interview with suspects

The aim of the current study was to obtain a snapshot of police officer’s beliefs about factors that may influence the outcome of the investigative interview with suspects. We created a 26-item survey that contained statements around three specific themes: best interview practices, confessions and interviewee vulnerabilities. Police officers (N = 101) reported their beliefs on each topic by indicating the level of agreement or disagreement with each statement. The findings indicated that this sample of officers held beliefs that were mostly consistent with the literature. However, many officers also responded in the mid-range (neither agree nor disagree) which may indicate they are open to developing literature-consistent beliefs of the topics. Understanding what officers believe about factors within the investigative interview may have implications for future training. It may also help explain why some officers do not consistently apply best practices (i.e. strong counterfactual beliefs) versus officers who reliably apply literature-consistent practices to their interviews (i.e. knowledge-consistent beliefs).This research is supported by a fellowship awarded from the Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate Program, The House of Legal Psychology (EMJD-LP) with Framework Partnership Agreement (FPA) 2013-0036 and Specific Grant Agreement (SGA) 2015-1610 awarded to Nicole Adams.Published onlin