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Transport and Systems Engineering

Transport and Systems Engineering in the School is focused on rail and road transport operations and hospital operating theatre scheduling .

Staff:

CAPACITY ESTIMATION FOR A RAIL NETWORK SERVING MINES AND AN EXPORT TERMINAL

A large coal terminal on the Australian coast receives coal from several mines which is exported to a large number of markets around the world. At present, thirteen mines send their coal products to the terminal. The coal is brought to the terminal by trains run by the State Railways.

The chain of events in the transport of coal from the mines to the terminal has been modelled. Statistical and descriptive analysis of the duration and distribution of activity times and delays has been undertaken to enable the benchmarking of all activities in the land-based transportation of coal. This has involved the estimation of the optimal rates of loading coal at mines, unloading at the rail receival stations and the journey times of trains. Cycle times for train trips to each mine have been developed under alternative scenarios and are based on the 1996-98 proportion of coal transported from each mine.

This approach enables the capacity of land-based transportation system to be estimated rationally. It also allows the determination of the effect of reducing delays and introducing hardware and operational improvements on the capacity of the rail network.

TRUE COST OF ROAD TRAVEL

Road transportation has become the most dominant mode for movement of persons and goods around the world. The unprecedented growth in road transportation has been accompanied by a number of undesirable consequences. It is premised that the excessive use of road transportation and its concomitant effects are the result of deliberate economic and political forces. The distorted pricing system ensuing from drivers required to pay less than the full cost of travel results in excessive use of car, unfair competition with public transport modes and deterrent to cycling and walking modes. This is leading towards unsustainable transportation systems.

It is postulated that bold regulatory and pricing policies are required with a view to charging the full costs of travel to road users. These can only be developed with detailed knowledge of the true cost of road travel. This research is aimed at identifying the various components of costs associated with road transportation, reviewing the methods of estimation, ascertaining the proportion of costs not borne by road users, and recommending road pricing options and policies. The research has revealed that contrary to common belief, the external component of the highly publicised community costs of accidents and congestion are insignificant. Environmental impacts, however, impose the largest externality and very little of this cost is recovered from the motorists. This is an important conclusion on which policies for charging full costs may be developed.

ROAD SAFETY THROUGH ROAD DESIGN IMPROVEMENTS

Roads with higher geometric standards have been found to be safer. In fact the freeways (or motorways) are the safest form of road, being four times as safe as other roads. In Australia, where population is sparse except in the metropolitan cities, travel demand and economics do not permit all roads to be built to the highest standards. A significant proportion of Australian roads, especially in the country areas, have been built to lower standards. Improving design standards will undoubtedly improve safety on roads. The design standards refer to strategic decisions concerning the geometric standards to which the road is built. Such decisions are possible to be made efficiently and rationally if the decision-makers are aware of the effect of improving standards on reducing accident risk.

Crash data and road data for the state of Queensland have been obtained from Queensland Transport and Main Roads respectively. These have been linked through the unique crash ID. Accidents have been classified by design features and qualitative and quantitative models have been developed that relate design features of roads to accident risk. These can be used to determine optimal design standards and efficient allocation of resources on constructing and maintaining roads from safety considerations. Specifically, the study examines the benefits of increasing lane widths, providing passing or overtaking lanes, providing shoulders, and increasing sight distance on reducing road accidents. It also enables the estimation of benefits of incremental improvement in design standards by determining the accident risk reduction potential. The specific outcomes from this study include the estimation of specific contribution of improvements in the geometric design standards of roads to the reduction of accident risk.

DESCRIPTORS OF THEATRE UTILISATION

Health systems occupy a large part of national budgets. Within those budgets the cost of elective surgery is one of the most closely monitored activities when seeking cost-saving efficiencies. Elective surgery is expensive because it necessitates a dedicated operating theatre and a highly-trained team of clinical and support staff. The optimum use of an operating theatre expressed as Theatre Utilisation is a frequently quoted performance indicator sought by managers seeking to ensure the public are getting good value for their elective surgery health dollar. Whilst managers might wish "Theatre Utilisation" to be a single figure which might summarise all the information required to describe the theatre system, the unfortunate reality is that theatres are complex and require a hierarchical approach to analysing theatre performance. The purpose of this study is to identify sub-optimal performance and feedback this information to influence behaviour of the participants. The sophistication of the analysis depends on both the number of theatres in a hospital suite, but also the diversity of specialty disciplines involved. To help describe theatre activity in large institutions, various computerised audit systems have been developed. This project aims (i) to set-out the primary functions of a theatre reporting system, (ii) to review the currently available reporting systems and performance indicators and (iii) to devise a hierarchy (level) of reporting which limits the data request to that absolutely necessary to understand the system. Additional levels of reporting on data collection will be analysed to take account of multiple theatre suites and to answer specific questions relating to lost time, performance of tribal sub-groups, cancellations or adverse event analysis.

WORK MEASUREMENT IN BANANA PACKING IN NORTH QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA


Banana packing

An industrial engineering approach has been used to study the current practices and technologies employed in the banana packing industry in North Queensland in Australia. The objectives of this study include the following:

The study region is a major banana producing territory in the country with an annual output exceeding 12 million cartons per year. This represents about 70% of the total Australian production. Special emphasis has been placed on the technology employed at the farms in each process in the packing shed, the practices of deploying its workforce, the scope of activities undertaken such as making cartons and on-site storage in addition to the essential processes of unloading, washing, dehanding, sorting, packing and palletising, etc. The time and motion study data have been recorded on videotapes using video cam recorder with time code insertion. The accuracy of time measurement is one frame which represents 0.04 second. The task times have been obtained by playing the tapes with Sony SVO-5800P videocassette recorder (super VHS format with time code) and Sony PVM-1450QM Trinitron colour video monitor. Using the established work measurement techniques, scientific estimate of activity times, proportion of time spent on productive activities, allowances, and standard productivity levels have been derived for benchmarking and productivity improvement.

DEVELOPMENT OF AN AUSTRALIAN ROAD AND HIGHWAY SYSTEM ASSET MODEL

A capital stock model for estimating the value and average age of the Australian Road and Highway system is being developed. Level of highway investment over the past 20 years and its relationship to GDP, population, registered vehicles and travel task are being examined. Appropriate models of depreciation are being developed and a weighted age of the infrastructure will be estimated. The model will be applied to several categories of roads and highways. Highway investments and capital stock are projected to year 2015 under alternative scenarios. The project is expected to increase our knowledge about the significance of highway infrastructure in facilitating economic productivity and enhancing international competitiveness.

THEATRE INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AND EFFICIENCY (TIME) SYSTEM

A Theatre Information Management and Efficiency (TIME) system is being developed in collaboration with the School of Medicine to provide intelligent reporting of theatre as well as clinical resource utilization.

The system is based on the following principles and objectives: The outputs of the "TIME" system are organised into four major components:

The system is expected to provide reliable and timely information for management and clinicians to facilitate decision-making and improving resource utilisation. The objective is to facilitate comparison of relative efficiencies among different hospitals, to gain insights into the causes of inefficiencies, and to bring about behavioural and procedural changes to improve resource utilisation.

Further information:

School of Engineering
James Cook University
Townsville, Australia, 4811
Phone +61 (7) 4781 4270

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