AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECTS OF VISUAL AIDS IN THE DESIGN OF INDUSTRIAL FACILITIES

RAJIV M GUPTA, Purdue University

Abstract

The objective of this research was to examine the feasibility and utility of solving the Facilities Design problem in an interactive mode. Due to the combinatorial nature of the problem, exact analytical solutions have proved to be computationally infeasible for practical problems. The sub-optimal solutions obtained by heuristic algorithms concentrate largely on the material handling cost. It may be possible that in a broader context, these solutions are not practical. So a need exists to integrate the human designer in the design process. This research investigated the feasibility of such a combined approach. Seven different aids were combined into three sets and were evaluated with respect to their utility in enhancing the human problem solving capability. In addition to the aids, two factors related to the problem were also examined the size of the problem and the density of the penalty matrix. It was hypothesized that these two factors could be used to define the problem complexity. The aids were examined in the context of these two factors to determine if different aids were more beneficial for different combinations of these two factors. A Tektronix 4081 graphics system was used for the research for the graphics display. In addition, an alphanumeric terminal was used for displaying menus of options to the human subjects. The subjects were selected from the population of graduate students in the School of Industrial Engineering at Purdue University. Experiments were conducted on sixteen subjects who were divided into four groups. The subjects in each group solved the same four problems. For each group, the factors of size and density were kept fixed. T-intervals were constructed to compare the aids with the no aids case and to compare pairs of sets of aids. An analysis of the performance of the subjects and their activities were analyzed to determine different solution strategies. In general, the aids were found to perform better than no aids. The only exception was in the case where the problem size was small and the density was low. Also the ordering of the different aids for the four different problem classes was found to be generally the same for different problem classes.

Degree

Ph.D.

Subject Area

Industrial engineering

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