Thesis M.S. Michigan State University. Packaging - Master of Science 2014.

ABSTRACTTRACKING UNSALEABLES INFORMATION TO DECREASE PACKAGE DAMAGE AND PRODUCT LOSSByThomas Charles SandersThe literature review summarizes some of the joint grocery industry reports on unsaleables, discusses technologies that are being used to track distribution data, define and describe reverse logistics, and discuss types of grocery damage. This research explores seven case studies. Two independent and three large retail chains are chosen to represent a range of unsaleables management strategies. Three manufacturers are chosen because they deal extensively with unsaleables. Flow diagrams are developed to show the flow of unsaleable goods and information. It is found that there is an opportunity for electronic data exchange in reverse logistics that can help in the tracking and sharing of unsaleable product information. This research recommends seven reason codes to put unsaleable products in clearly defined categories for retailers to use when gathering unsaleables data: beyond code date, recall, theft, discontinued product/promotions/product launches, seasonal, damage and other. These reason codes were chosen to put unsaleable products in clearly defined categories. It is recommended that manufacturers gather more granular information in their audits. A list of standard tests for package damage is formed to judge package performance when damage is found to be a problem. A more scientific approach to determine shelf-life and ship-life is recommended along with a longer ship-life to better facilitate first-in, first-out (FIFO) inventory management.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF t.p. (viewed on April 21, 2017)

Thesis M.S. Michigan State University. Packaging 2016

An increasing number of companies find that their products pass standard vibration tests but are damaged during transportation. The main reason for this is that the vibration tables used in these tests only move up and down, meaning they lack 5 of the 6 motions that occur in real transportation. Converting a single-axis table to a six-axis table is almost impossible to do. Therefore this research investigated an alternative solution to this problem by adding the second most severe motion, roll. The concept of adding roll to a vertical shaker was to place a rocking platform on the table to act as the new vibration plane. When the table is vibrating, the platform will move both up and down and rock. Theoretically, the rocking motion can be made to match that in a trailer by adjusting two variables of the platform system. The theoretical RMS G could not be verified using test results due to unwanted noise and vibrations produced by the platform flexing and the axle wobbling. However, good agreement between the predicted and experimental rocking natural frequency showed that the concept has some merit. After fixing the problems with the structure of the platform, the next step for this research will be to test actual packages on a trailer and on the platform.

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Thesis Ph. D. Michigan State University. Packaging 2014.

Protocols development for Security and Privacy of Radio Frequency Identification SystemsBy Fatin SabbaghaThere are benefits to adopting radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, although there are methods of attack that can compromise the system. This research determined how that may happen and what possible solutions can keep that from happening. Protocols were developed to implement better security. In addition, new topologies were developed to handle the problems of the key management. Previously proposed protocols focused on providing mutual authentication and privacy between readers and tags. However, those protocols are still vulnerable to be attacked. These protocols were analyzed and the disadvantages shown for each one. Previous works assumed that the channels between readers and the servers were secure. In the proposed protocols, a compromised reader is considered along with how to prevent tags from being read by that reader. The new protocols provide mutual authentication between readers and tags and, at the same time, remove the compromised reader from the system.Three protocols are proposed. In the first protocol, a mutual authentication is achieved and a compromised reader is not allowed in the network. In the second protocol, the number of times a reader contacts the server is reduced. The third protocol provides authentication and privacy between tags and readers using a trusted third party. The developed topology is implemented using python language and simulates work to check the efficiency regarding the processing time. The three protocols are implemented by writing codes in C language and then compiling them in MSP430. IAR Embedded workbench is used, which is an integrated development environment with the C/C++ compiler to generate a faster code and to debug the microcontroller. In summary, the goal of this research is to find solutions for the problems on previously proposed protocols, handle a compromised reader, and solve key management problems.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF t.p. (viewed on August 31, 2017)

Thesis M.S. Michigan State University. Packaging 2015

Despite advances improving packaging safeguards in recent years, unintentional child poisonings remain an important public health concern. From 2001 to 2008, more than half a million children 5 or younger visited an emergency room in the U.S due to possible poisoning by medication. Data reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in their latest report (2013) further suggests that among children, ED visits for medication poisonings are most common in children under 6 years of age. To limit childrens' exposure to drugs and other household items that may cause harm, the US government has required "special packaging" on specified products since the early 1970s. Our study attempts to extend early stage processing (i.e. capture a child's attention in an area of the package away from the closure system) to extend the time before opening. To do so, we applied a lenticular graphic, or a "visual distracter," to pharmaceutical vials and blisters. Distracters alternated between a frowning facial icon and the words "keep away" as the packages were moved. Two hundred and seven children between the ages of 24 and 51 months were tested in pairs. Each pair was provided one of the four treatment conditions (pharmaceutical vials with and without distracter and walleted blisters with and without distracters). Given that only 7 out of 99 subjects open the blisters successfully, no evidence for any effect of treatment on the probability of opening blisters (P=0.6522) or the time to successful opening (P=0.8196) was found. However, the results for the vials suggest the presence of a visual distracter to be a promising approach for prolonging time to opening (P=0.0375 ; Treatments that contained distracters [ME= 103.05 seconds SE 26.10]; Plain Treatment [ME=36.64 seconds SE 20.34]) and may be particularly effective in preventing younger children (24 to 40 months of age) (P=0.0356) from successfully opening vials (LSM=0.085 CI [0.0246, 0.2538]) as compared to their counterparts 42-51 months (LSM=0.2414 CI [0.0813, 0.5337] ).

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Thesis M.S. Michigan State University. Animal Science 2016

ABSTRACTA COMPARISON OF BEEF TRACEABILITY MODELS DURING SERIAL AND PARALLEL PROCESSINGByTristan Parker FosterTraceability of beef attributes through supply chains is a market barrier. Automatic identification and data capture technologies offer the feasibility of maintaining animal and product data through carcass fabrication. Individual animal identity of fifty-four (54) beef carcasses were maintained through the supply chain. Carcasses were fabricated into wholesale cuts using a serial processing method (SPM) or a parallel processing method (PPM). The goal of this study was to identify labeling techniques for two different processing methods, SPM and PPM, in tracking wholesale meat cuts back to the original animal in mid-sized processing facilities. The objectives of the study were 1) to determine the cost of additional labor required for traceability; 2) determine both consumable and fixed costs of traceability; 3) test traceability accuracy utilizing DNA matching.The mean number of in-process labels generated per carcass for SPM was 3.7 and for PPM was 30.9 (P < 0.01). The amount of time required for generating in-process labels for SPM (2 min 16 sec) was less than PPM (8 min 45 sec) (P = 0.01). The amount of time required to label each carcass was less (P < 0.01) for SPM (18 sec) than for PPM (3 min 10 sec) which required in-process labels. Total cost of traceability, including fixed and consumable cost per carcass, was nearly twice as much for PPM (17.98) than SPM (9.02). Traceability, for both processing methods, was found to have 100% fidelity, as verified using DNA marker genotyping.

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