Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2013. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 92-93). / In the truckload transportation industry in the United States, a number of indexes are published that attempt to measure changes in rates, but no single index has emerged as an industry standard. Industry participants, particularly those exposed to the spot-market, have found that existing indexes do not effectively represent their experiences in the marketplace. A widely-used and valid spot-market index could allow for more effective tactical decision-making, the development of freight derivatives, stronger analysis and negotiation of contract rates, and contracts with index-tied rates. This paper examines pricing indexes from other industries and expands upon a framework of characteristics that support successful indexes. Using this framework to evaluate existing industry indexes, it finds that two commonly used indexes are not designed appropriately for use by the spot-market. It also examines rates experienced by a large North American provider of non-asset based logistics services and finds that they differ significantly from rates measured by existing indexes. The analysis suggests that indexes of the spot market would be improved by disaggregating rate information based on geography and tender lead time. / by Andrew Bignell. / M.Eng.in Logistics

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Biological Engineering Division, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 92-93). / The two most common forms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's Disease (CD), which affect more than 1 million Americans. Recently the incidence of IBD has been rising in Japan, Europe and North America.' Colorectal cancer is a very serious complication of IBD, and a patient's risk increases with increasing extent and duration of disease.2 There is no cure for CD, and the only cure for UC is removal of the entire colon and rectum. It is thought that cancer risk is based on chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal mucosa. There have been many studies, which have supported this idea and have made progress toward understanding the link between chronic inflammation and cancer. In both UC and CD, it is known that there are increased levels of EA, cG, and eC, which are potentially miscoding lesions, in the DNA of affected tissues.3 Also, 3-methyladenine DNA glycosylase (Aag in mice), an initiator of the Base Excision Repair pathway, shows adaptively increasing activity in response to increased inflammation in UC colon epithelium.4 This thesis demonstrates the importance of Aag in protecting against the effects of chronic inflammation. / (cont.) It was found that Aag deficient mice, treated with 5 cycles of dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) to induce chronic inflammation, showed significant signs of increased disease including decreased colon length, increased spleen weight, and increase in epithelial defects. Also, when treated with a tumor initiator, azoxymethane, prior to DSS exposure, Aag deficient mice show a 2.95 fold (p<0.0001) increase in tumor multiplicity compared to wild type treated animals, as well as decreased colon length, increased spleen weight, increased dysplasia/neoplasia, and increased area affected by dysplasia/neoplasia. If UC patients had a deficiency in 3-methyladenine-DNA-glycosylase activity, they would likely be more susceptible to mutations and cancer because of their inability to repair DNA damage caused by inflammatory cytokines and reactive oxygen and nitrogen species. In future studies, it would be beneficial to determine if transgenic Aag over-expresser mice show protection against the damage induced by chronic inflammation. This would make intestinal gene therapy a possible approach to finding the first cure for IBD and inflammation associated colorectal cancer. / by Stephanie Lauren Green. / S.M.

Thesis: M. Eng. in Logistics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2014. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 45-46). / PharCo (an assumed name) is a leading global healthcare company with well-recognized brands of both pharmaceutical and consumer healthcare products. As PharCo continues to expand its global presence, product stock-outs in their pharmaceutical business unit have been consistently increasing. PharCo suspected that manufacturing quality defects were a major cause of stock-outs, reducing the production yield and preventing the company from meeting customer demand. To help test this hypothesis and address the stock-out challenge, we reviewed existing research on the subject of product stock-outs within the pharmaceutical industry. To understand PharCo's manufacturing process, we conducted on-site visits and reviewed their quality control practices. Finally, we designed a mixed methods approach that combines qualitative and quantitative techniques to analyze the root causes of product stock-outs at PharCo. The analysis revealed that, instead of manufacturing quality defects, regulatory issues were the primary cause for stock-outs at PharCo. Regulatory challenges associated with developments such as new product launches, license renewals, and formulation modifications need to be addressed for PharCo to reduce their stock-out level. / by Xuewen Sun and Bangqi Yin. / M. Eng. in Logistics

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 151-152). / The concepts of value and value stream are crucial to the philosophy of Lean, and a better understanding of how these concepts relate to product development (PD) is essential for the creation of a Lean PD strategy. This thesis focuses on value by looking at PD processes through two different value perspectives: Product Development Value Stream Mapping and Earned Value Management. Product Development Value Stream Maps (PDVSMs) were created for two different PD projects, and the tasks from the maps were analyzed for how they each create value. The official value measurement for the two projects, Earned Value Management System data, was analyzed and compared to the PDVSMs. This comparison of the two value perspectives proved valuable, as it showed that despite some misalignments, they are congruent. The comparison also highlighted several flaws in EVMS. Finally, a combined EVMS/PDVSM hybrid management tool is proposed and discussed. / by Ryan Brent Whitaker. / S.M.

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2011. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 186-197). / Climate and energy security concerns have prompted policy action in the United States and abroad to reduce petroleum use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from passenger vehicles. Policy affects the decisions of firms and households, which inevitably react to changing constraints and incentives. Developing and applying models that capture the technological and behavioral richness of the policy response, and combining model insights with analysis of political feasibility, are important agendas for both research and policy. This work makes four distinct contributions to these agendas, focusing on the case of climate and energy policy for passenger vehicles in the United States. First, this work contributes to econometric studies of the household response to gasoline prices by investigating whether or not U.S. households alter their reliance on higher fuel economy vehicles in response to gasoline price changes. Using micro-level household vehicle usage data collected during a period of gasoline price fluctuations in 2008 to 2009, the econometric analysis shows that this short-run vehicle switching response, while modest, is more pronounced for low income than high income households, and occurs on both a total distance and per trip basis. Second, this work makes a methodological contribution that advances the state of empirical modeling of passenger vehicle transport in economy-wide macroeconomic models. The model developments include introducing an empirically-based relationship between income growth and travel demand, turnover of the vehicle stock, and cost-driven investment both in reduction of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle fuel consumption as well as in adoption of alternative fuel vehicles and fuels. These developments offer a parsimonious way of capturing important physical detail and allow for analysis of technology-specific policies such as a fuel economy standard (FES) and renewable fuel standard (RFS), implemented individually or in combination with an economy-wide cap-and-trade (CAT) policy. The new developments within the model structure are essential to capturing physical system constraints, interactions among policies, and unintended effects on non-covered sectors. Third, the model was applied to identify cost-effective policy approaches in terms of both energy and climate goals. The RFS and FES policies were shown to be at least six to fourteen times as costly as a gasoline tax on a discounted basis in achieving a 20% reduction in cumulative motor gasoline use. Each of these policies was shown to have only a modest effect on economy-wide carbon dioxide emissions. Combining a fuel economy standard and a renewable fuel standard produced a gasoline reduction around 20% lower than the sum of forecasted reductions under each of the policies individually. Under an economy-wide CAT policy that targets GHG emissions reduction at least cost, obtaining additional reductions in passenger vehicle gasoline use with RFS or FES policy increases the total policy cost, and does not result in additional reductions in GHG emissions. The analysis shows the importance of integrated assessments of multiple policies that act on separate parts of a system to achieve a single goal, or on the same system to achieve distinct goals. Fourth, a political analysis shows how, in the case of climate and energy policy for passenger vehicles, sharp trade-offs exist between economic efficiency and political feasibility. These tensions are shown to exist at the level of policy justification, policy type, and design choices within policies. The pervasiveness of these tensions suggests that economically-preferred policies will face the greatest barriers to implementation. This work concludes by integrating the findings from each of the individual parts to make recommendations for policy. Recognizing the heterogeneity of household responses, the prescriptions of the economic analysis, and the tensions between these prescriptions and politics, policy options should be evaluated not only based on cost effectiveness, but also on their ability to serve as stepping stones toward desirable end states by providing incentives to revisit and increase policy cost effectiveness over time. / by Valerie Jean Karplus. / Ph. D.

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 32-33). / by Bradley Richard Yim. / M.Eng.in Logistics

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2004. / "June 2004." / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 71-72). / Process integration has become more and more important in today's world where companies' supply chains have become more complex. Companies around the world are beginning to realize the importance of integrating their supply chain business processes to achieve fulfillment excellence. Unfortunately, process integration is still somewhat a novel concept and relatively little research has been conducted in examining how companies can effectively implement successful process integration across their supply chains. To complicate matters further, many companies still confuse the concept of business process integration with that of mere data integration. The primary motivation for this research study is to provide a framework on how best to implement process integration to achieve fulfillment excellence. The methodology employed in this particular study comprises the use of two case studies with real-life companies, which provide real-world examples of how companies try to "integrate" their complex supply chain processes. A deep and thorough analysis is then conducted to identify the challenges presented by the firm's current practices from a business process integration perspective. Further analysis then provides an overall view of what is done right and what could have been improved. Last but not least, a generalized framework of best practices and a prescription of how best to implement successful process integration to achieve fulfillment excellence are presented. / co-authored by Marcos Buelvas [and] Sonita Lontoh. / M.Eng.in Logistics

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Biological Engineering Division, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references. / Cells sense mechanical stimuli and respond by changing their phenotype, e.g. shape, gene expression, motility. This process, termed mechanotransduction, was investigated using computational and theoretical approaches, as well as comparisons with experiments. As a first step, a three-dimensional viscoelastic finite element model was developed to simulate cell micromanipulation by magnetocytometry. The model provided a robust tool for analysis of detailed strain/stress fields induced within a single cell or cell monolayer produced by forcing one tethered microbead. On the assumption of structural homogeneity, stress and strain patterns were highly localized, suggesting that the effects of magnetocytometry are confined to a region extending less than 10tm from the bead. Modification of the model to represent experimental focal adhesion attachments supported a non-uniform force transmission to basal surface focal adhesion sites. Proteins in identified zones of high stresses in the cell are candidate mechanosensors and their molecular response to force was hence investigated, A generic model of protein extension under external forcing was created inspired by Kramers theory for reaction rate kinetics in liquids. / (cont.) The protein was hypothesized to have two distinct conformational states: a relaxed state, Ci, preferred in the absence of external force, and an extended state, C2, favored under force application. Appearance and persistence of C2 was assumed to lead to transduction of the mechanical signal into a chemical one. While the level of applied force and the energy difference between states largely determined equilibrium, the dominant influence on the extension time was the height of the transition state. Force-induced distortions in the energy landscape were also shown to have a significant influence on extension time, however, exhibiting a weaker force dependence than exponential. Finally, the link between membrane receptors and the extracellular matrix -- or the bead in magnetocytometry experiments -- was investigated as a primary path for force transduction to the cell interior. To shed light on the role of bonds formed by membrane receptors on measurements of cellular rheology, we modeled the process by which a forced, cell-tethered microbead translates and rotates as influenced by the stochastic formation and. rupture of adhesion bonds. We show that this process is crucial in the inference of cell mechanical properties from microbead experiments. / by Hélène Karcher. / Ph.D.

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2006. / "June 2006." / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 51). / In logistics, freight can be consolidated over time (temporally) or over space (spatially). This thesis presents a simulation model to evaluate temporal and spatial consolidation rules. The model is the result of a research project to analyze freight consolidation options for a large industrial company. The research project focused on the company's freight imported from China to the US, and the model presented in the thesis is structured to represent a typical import logistics network. The results section of the thesis presents a method for evaluating consolidation rules. The results recommend temporal consolidation of two weeks at the origin port and temporal consolidation of less than one week at the factory for the company's shipments from China to the US. This consolidation policy offers total network cost savings of 24% over the base case, an immediate ship policy. / by Daniel J. Ford, Jr. / M.Eng.in Logistics

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, June 2012. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 60-62). / Environmental sustainability initiatives have risen in popularity over recent decades. Companies are actively seeking to promote innovative practices to reduce environmental impact and attract the "green" shopper. The business-to-business (B2B) segment is no different, and many companies utilize proactive sustainability strategies. This thesis examines the important role that environmental sustainability plays within the B2B segment and makes recommendations on how to prioritize sustainability investments. RetailCo, a national provider of various material goods and services, provided data and support for analysis. Information was collected and analyzed from customer inquiries such as Requests for Proposals and Requests for Information. An online survey, constructed to determine customer sustainability priorities, was distributed to business customers. The results from both data sources were used to analyze customer preferences and priorities. Results were analyzed by industry type, company size, geographic region, and annual spend with RetailCo. Finally, interviews were conducted with select companies to compare survey results. Detailed analysis of all data sources shows that sustainable business customers are larger government or education organizations, and they appear to strongly favor electronics and paper product recycling initiatives. Although many companies show strong support for sustainability initiatives, price and quality continue to dominate purchasing decisions. / by Jeffrey Wallace Ransom. / M.Eng.in Logistics