Sustainability Research Initiative

Publications

Wind Power

Wang, C. and K. J. Min, Electric Power Generation Planning for Inter-Related Projects: A Real Options Approach, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Vol. 53, pp. 312-322, 2006.

Cahyadi, R., Min, K. J., Wang, C., and Abi-Samra, N., Generation Unit Selection via Capital Asset Pricing Model for Generation Planning, International Journal of Energy Research, Vol. 27, pp. 1251-1263, 2003.

Closed-Loop Supply Chains

Vorasayan, J. and S. M. Ryan. Optimal Price and Quantity of Refurbished Products. Forthcoming in Production and Operations Management Feature Issue on Closed Loop Supply Chains. 2006.

Marco Serrato, Sarah Ryan, Juan Gaytan (2006) A Markov Decision Model to Evaluate Outsourcing in Reverse Logistics, submitted to International Journal of Production Research

Jumpol Vorasayan. and Sarah Ryan (2006) A General Queuing Network Model to Optimize Refurbishing Policies for Returned Products, submitted to IIE Transactions

Li, J. and K. J. Min, Coordinating Forward and Reverse Flows of Products for a Manufacturer-Retailer Supply Chain Model, Proceedings of Industrial Engineering Research Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, May 2005.

Malladi, S. and K. J. Min, Selection of Products and Prices in Manufacturing and Remanufacturing Environment, Proceedings of Industrial Engineering Research Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, May 2005.

Chittamvanich, S. and S. M. Ryan (2004) Using Forecast Information from Early Returns of Used Products to Set Remanufacturing Capacity. Under review by European Journal of Operational Research.

Power Emission Control

Daniel, S. and K. J. Min, Market-Based Electric Power Generation Planning with Emission Control, Proceedings of Industrial Engineering Research Conference, Orlando, Florida, May 2006.

E-Commerce for Reverse Logistics

Ryan, S., Min, J. and Olafsson, S. Experimental Study of Scalability Enhancement for Reverse Logistics E-Commerce, in Prabu, Kumara and Kamath (eds.) Scalable Enterprise Systems: An Introduction to Recent Advances,. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003.

Ólafsson, S.. Improving Scalability of E-Commerce Systems with Knowledge Discovery, in Prabu, Kumara and Kamath (eds.) Scalable Enterprise System - An Introduction to Recent Advances, 2003.

Ólafsson, S. Recommender Systems for High-Stakes Decision Making, Proceedings of the Industrial Engineering Research Conference, May 15-19, Houston, TX, 2004.

Gemmill, D., A. Qamhiyah and S. M. Ryan. Electronic Manufacturers’ Support for Product Recycling, Proceedings of the Industrial Engineering Research Conference, Dallas, May 2001.

Olafsson, S., Min, K. J., Subramaniam, G., Sulakhe, S., Varghese, S., and Yang, J., Internet-Based Management and Archival System for Recyclable Products, Proceedings of the Industrial Engineering Research Conference, Dallas, Texas, May 2001.

Focus

Engineering contributes to environmental sustainability by reducing the material and energy consumption per unit of production of goods or services. Doing so requires taking a systems view that integrates people, information, and equipment along with materials and energy. We are developing models and analysis to support:

Closing the loop on supply chains to include remanufacturing and recycling by providing guidelines for used product acquisition, remanufacturing and recycling operations, as well as market development for remanufactured and recycled products.
Promoting the adoption of sustainable practices through market-based economic incentives and viable business models.
Substituting information for material and/or energy, such as by exploiting product condition information to make better decisions about maintenance, replacement and end-of-life disposition.

Contact Information


Dr. Sarah Ryan email: smryaniastate.edu	Dr. K. Jo Min email: jominiastate.edu

Education

In July 2006, Jo Min offered a 3-day course on sustainable production systems in Toluca, Mexico, for the interested faculty members from various campuses of Monterrey Institute of Technology. The course topics included inventory control for product recovery, reverse logistics, closed-loop supply chains, recycling and remanufacturing, channel structure, behavior, and coordination under remanufacturing. The attendees learned these key concepts of sustainable production systems, and how to apply these concepts in identifying, formulating, and solving relevant problems. This course is a short version of IE 403X/503X, Introduction to Sustainable Production Systems, which was offered at Iowa State University in Fall 2005, and will be offered again in Spring 2007.

Environmentally Sustainable Engineering (ESE) Workshop

September 20 (Tuesday) 2005 @ Iowa State University
More details...

Joseph K. Walkup Distinguished Lecture Series 2004-05

Professor Jane Ammons, Georgia Institute of Technology.
Research in reverse production systems
November 18, 2004

Professor Chris Hendrickson, Carnegie Mellon University
Research in Carnegie Mellon's Green Design Institute
March 29, 2005

Research

National Science Foundation Project DMI-0075575: An Enabling System for Market-Driven Collaborative Product Design and Recycling. $176,002, August 2000 - July 2002 (PI: Ryan, co-PIs Jacobson, Min, Olafsson, Gemmill, Qamhiyah)

This Scalable Enterprise Systems project explored the development of a science base and integrative technologies for implementing a scalable and secure hub for e-commerce in a closed loop supply chain. A simulated auction environment developed as part of this project involved undergraduates as research subjects and has been used in activities to recruit prospective students, particularly from underrepresented backgrounds.

Electric Power Industry (Sponsors: Electric Power Research Institute, MidAmerican Energy, and Electric Power Research Center at Iowa State University; Principal Investigator: Jo Min)
Integrated resource planning, generation planning, and capital budgeting process have been quantitatively studied on behalf of the electric power industry. In the context of such planning and process topics, the current changes in environmental regulations and competitive market organizations have been emphasized. As a consequence, the modeling and analysis include capital asset pricing of wind power generation units, emission of pollutants as a capital budgeting criterion, and quantification of the outage costs with more accurate generation planning.

Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering