Sponsored (Funded) Research
Below is a summary of Christine Nguyen’s sponsored research activities. A brief description of the various activities for each sponsored project is listed. Undergraduate and graduate students who worked on these research projects are in italics.
Elgin Industries
Process improvements in Push Rod Manufacturing Area (6/2021 – 12/2021)
Christine Nguyen, Purushothaman Damodaran, Pranit Narayan Nayyar
- Improve manufacturing line to decrease defects.
- Tools: design of experiments, line balancing, data analysis.
Distribution area improvement (6/2021 – 12/2021)
Ziteng Wang, Christine Nguyen, Madhura Vinay Vaidya
- Identify opportunities to improve operations in distribution area.
- Tools: data analysis, heat map, clustering, pareto analysis.
Power Solutions International
Christine Nguyen, Jonathan Kettelson, Thakshiny Ashokkumar, Sasimithran Muthurajan
- Evaluate material picking equipment and layout design.
- Improving repackaging process and design layout.
- Slotting optimization in warehouse.
- Recommend new infrastructure for storage at current and new facilities.
- Tools: clustering, operations research, layout design.
National Express LLC
CSC Management Productivity & Driver Retention (01/2018 – 9/2018)
Purushothaman Damodaran, Christine Nguyen, Ziteng Wang, Ehsan Asoudegi, Shivam Shinde, Sharjeel Siddique, Mohammed Hariri, Keerthika Lakshminarayanan, Prathika Selvan
- Analyze operations, policies, and job descriptions at multiple facilities.
- Compare and contrast operations to determine best practices and essential job functions and policies.
- Develop SOPs and identify opportunities for improvement.
Nestle’
Distribution Center Design Optimization (2/2017 - 8/2017)
Christine Nguyen, Purushothaman Damodaran, Nicholas LaVarra
- Implemented new storage schemes and analyzed infrastructure.
- Developed tool to optimize consolidation and restocking procedure and to optimize slotting.
- Tools: heat maps, data analysis, forecasting, capacity analysis, clustering, R programming, layout analysis.
Shirley Ryan AbilityLab (formerly Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago)
Improving Transport Policies (7/2016 – 2/2017)
Christine Nguyen, Karen Smilowitz (Northwestern University), Sanjay Mehrotra (Northwestern University), Salman Sharief
- Develop a process map that documents the work included in patient transport.
- Collect patient demand, transport time and resource data.
- Build a simulation model to evaluate proposed patient transport policies.
- Develop performance metrics to evaluate different policies.
- Tools used: simulation, data analysis, operations research.
WestRock
Improving Material Flow (5/2016 – 8/2016)
Purushothaman Damodaran, Christine Nguyen, Anandh Raj Marimuthu
- Optimize workflow of warehouse and material movement.
- Design new layout in warehouse to minimize travel and product handling.
- Design new layout to incorporate new production line.
- Tools used: lean, optimization, facility planning, inventory planning.
VNA Healthcare
Improving Efficiencies (8/2015 – 2/2016)
Omar Ghrayeb, Christine Nguyen, Michael Ray, Krishna Sagi
- Develop a process map.
- Collect data and perform time studies, and analyze for patterns.
- Develop SOPs for registration process.
- Create a simulation model with data and analyze what-if scenarios to improve facility performance.
- Develop capacity planning model.
Tools used: data analysis, simulation, SOPs, process mapping
Publications
Below is a summary of publications, books, and conference proceedings. Student collaborators are noted with a *.
Journal Publications
- Alipour, P.*, Damodaran, P., and Nguyen. (2020) Using GRASP Approach and Path Relinking to Minimize Total Number of Tardy Jobs on a Single Batch Processing Machine. International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering 35(1), 80-99.
- Kakkunuri, R.*, Nguyen, C., and P. Damodaran. (2020) Simulated Annealing Approach to Minimize Total Weighted Tardiness of Non-Identical Parallel Batch Processing Machines. International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering 34(2), 301-320.
- *Ghasemi Nodooshan, K., Moraga, R., Chen, G., Nguyen, C., Wang, Z. and S. Mohseni. (2018) An environmental and economic optimization of Algal Biofuel Supply Chain with multiple technological pathways. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research 57(20), 6910-6925
- *Suhaimi, N., Nguyen, C., and P. Damodaran. (2016) Lagrangian Approach for the Non-Identical Parallel Batch Processing Machines. Computers and Industrial Engineering 101, 295-302.
- Nguyen, C., Dessouky, M., and A. Toriello. (2014) Consolidation Strategies for the Delivery of Perishable Products. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review 69:108-121.
- Nguyen, C., Toriello, A., Dessouky, M., and J. Moore II. (2013) Evaluation of Transportation Practices in the California Cut Flower Industry. Interfaces 43(2): 182-193.
Books/Chapters
- Richardson, H., Pan, Q., Gordon, P., Moore II, J.E., Park, J., and Nguyen. (2015) “A Bomb Attack on a Shopping Mall.” In Regional Economic Impacts of Terrorist Attacks, Natural Disasters and Metropolitan Policies, Advances in Spatial Science, edited by H. Richardson, Q. Pan, J. Park, and J.E. Moore II, 87-94. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.
- Nguyen, C, Goff, Z*, and R. Accorsi. (2019) “Chapter 10. Mathematical Modelling of Food and Agriculture Distribution.” Sustainable Food Supply Chains: Planning, Design, and Control through Interdisciplinary Methodologies. Editors: Riccardo Accorsi and Riccardo Manzini. Invited Chapter.
Conference Proceedings
- LaVarra, N.* and C. Nguyen. (2019) “Using k-Means Clustering for Product Pick Slotting in a Distribution Center.” Proceedings of the 2019 IISE Annual Conference.