Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2012. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 138-144). / Occupancy-moderated zonal space-conditioning (OZS) refers to the partitioning of a residence into different zones and independently operating the space-conditioning equipment of each zone based on its occupancy. OZS remains largely unexplored in spite of its potential to reduce the cost of space-conditioning. Despite the excitement surrounding cloud-connected devices like mobile phones and tablet computers, the benefit of using them to aid energy management agents (EMAs) in reducing space-conditioning cost under demand-driven pricing of electricity is not well understood. We develop a novel framework and the algorithms to enable an EMA to implement OZS for multiple inhabitants under a demand-driven pricing scheme for electricity. We further investigate the effects that influencing factors can have on the effectiveness of OZS under different scenarios using Monte Carlo simulations. The simulation results demonstrate that OZS is realizable on a simple home computer and can achieve significant space-conditioning cost reductions in practice. In our studies, both the financial operating cost of space-conditioning and the cost associated with discomfort are included in a single aggregate cost function. We then expand the simulations to study the cost reduction that is achievable when using cloud-connected devices to provide remote schedule updates to an EMA. This part of the study reveals that reduction in space-conditioning cost is appreciable if a working resident remotely updates an EMA at mid-day of his return time in the evening. In addition, we establish a directly proportional relationship between the level of space-conditioning cost reduction achievable and the variance of return time. Based on the research findings, we further offer recommendations and ideas for future research on the use of OZS and remote schedule updates to different stakeholders like policy-makers and homeowners. / by Woei Ling Leow. / Ph.D.

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 46). / The freight brokerage industry in North America was born of the deregulation of the trucking industry in 1982. In the two decades since, the industry has grown from nothing to $50 Billion in revenue. In the beginning, freight brokers used T-card systems to record, track, and bill orders. Technology advances over those two decades have driven many of the operational changes throughout the freight transportation industry as a whole, with shipment data visibility, asset utilization, and supply chain planning leading the way. The use of optimization tools in transportation and supply chain management has proliferated. Network analysis, inventory planning and deployment, fleet routing, and warehouse planning are important examples of areas in which these tools have had a major impact. However, the freight brokerage sub-industry itself has largely ignored the use of these tools. This research proposes pragmatic uses for optimization techniques in the freight brokerage industry. Three tools are proposed, with justifications for need, mathematical formulations, and exemplary situations and savings described. The three tools are: 1) optimal truckload freight tenders to multiple carriers, 2) optimal LTL consolidation, and 3) optimal matching of loads and trucks. / by Jeffrey L. Silver. / M.Eng.in Logistics

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 55-56). / The transport of highly perishable goods, in particular nuclear medicine, is subject to stringent regulations. Carefully designed transport selection criteria considering available alternatives, product attributes, decay analysis, and shipping constraints may reduce the total costs. This thesis recommends a new approach to making alternative selections, leading to total cost reductions. This project was conducted with three goals in mind in partnership with a Fortune 500 healthcare company. First, it serves to develop a deeper understanding of the transport of nuclear medicine. Second, it serves to analyze whether current decision making processes can be adjusted to lower the total cost. Third, it serves to improve transportation decisions about nuclear medicine. The results demonstrate that the current operation of the partner company can be improved by ceasing to over-estimate and over-compensate decay costs by using more high-rate alternatives than needed. By minimizing total costs, the company can reduce its transportation costs by 5-10%. Note also that minimizing transportation costs alone can achieve total cost reductions, similar to minimizing total costs, although both scenarios recommend different alternative selection mixes. The embedded reason is that decay costs and transportation costs cancel out each other. / by Xiaowen Yang. / M.Eng.in Logistics

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2012. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 122-123). / Large-scale software engineering organizations have traditionally used plan-driven, heavyweight, waterfall-style approaches for the planning, execution, and monitoring of software development efforts. This approach often results in relatively long development schedules that are susceptible to failure, especially in a rapidly changing environment: Schedule pressure, defects and requirements changes, can drive endless redesign, delay the project, and incur extra cost. Many in the commercial software world have dealt with these pressures by adopting Agile Software Development, an approach designed to be flexible and responsive to high-change environments. Software development teams that are said to employ "Agile development" in effect practice a variety of "agile methods". These practices are advertised to reduce coordination costs, to focus teams, and to produce stable product iterations that can be released incrementally. Agile software development has become a de-facto approach to the engineering of software systems in the commercial world, and is now entering the aerospace and defense sectors. The APD model developed in this research aids in the understanding of the impact that alternative combinations of Agile practices, combined with different management policies, have on project performance, compared to a waterfall approach. This research culminates in a formulation of insights and recommendations for how to integrate Agile practices into a large-scale software engineering organization. / by Firas Glaiel. / S.M.

Thesis (M.Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-83). / Procurement, consolidation, international transportation, custom clearance and distribution are the main global logistics steps of an integrated supply chain. Business-to-business e-commerce can significantly alter the logistics of business supply chains, with significant implications for the geography, modal structure and values of transportation services such as speed, reliability, visibility and transparency. Traditional procurement systems happen via complex, paper-intensive, approval and order process with high administrative cost and low economies of scale. These processes may include re-keying of information, lengthy approval cycles, a substantial involvement of financial and administrative resources, lack of transparency in the bidding process which ultimately would limit the benefits of volume procurement contracts and result in delays to end-users, i.e. losing efficiencies and precious time in a humanitarian relief program. The purpose of the study within the Transportation and Logistics Division of The World Food Programme is to answer the following question: how can The World Food Programme leverage the internet as a global buyer that connects suppliers and service providers in a digital interactive base? The aim of the study is to pin-point which transactions can in the future be made with higher visibility and with a better management of information in order to take advantage of volume procurement contracts, integrate the process and reduce the cost of each procurement transaction. Determining a best practice with a new process and its benefits is the objective. / by Rafaela Gonçalves da Arriaga de Oliveira. / M.Eng.

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 77-78). / The pharmaceutical industry creates products which often have more than one supply chain channel, defined as a route through the supply chain network from sourcing to the end market. Each channel's specific cost characteristics are important to the pharmaceutical industry's ability to maintain positive profit margins while meeting high customer service requirements. Determining the optimal supply chain channel involves the analysis of fuel costs, logistics, taxes, wage differences, and many more. Additionally, variables such as time and risk significantly impact the total cost of a supply chain channel, but are extremely difficult to quantify. In this research, we identify the relevant channel costs and variables for the supply chain of a large pharmaceutical corporation. After identification, our study categorizes each cost based on level of measurability and causes of variability to develop a framework identifying the most relevant costs by four product types. We then analyze market forces that affect costs over a product's lifecycle. Finally, we develop an operational model for using the framework to compare costs across multiple supply chain channels and time horizons. / by Eric C. Rimling and Wontae Thomas Seoh. / M.Eng.in Logistics

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 100). / Each week, FruitCo (FC) ships over a thousand containers of fresh fruits to its various port facilities in the US. Once the containers arrive at the port, approximately half of these containers are received by customers while the remaining half is handled by FC and delivered to customers by either a dedicated or contract carrier. For each containers delivered by FC, heuristics and cost-analysis are used to make the carrier decision. Like other shippers with multiple carrier options, FC needs to both maximize profit and preserve service quality. FC's existing decision framework focuses on fronthaul profit for each delivery while its heuristics do not reflect specific service or cost strategies. Additionally, the existence of backhaul revenue, late returns of containers, limits on containers and dedicated drivers, and a variable ship arrival and departure schedule meant that existing decisions were limited in scope and rarely maximized profit for FC's delivery operations (part of port operations) as a whole. In our thesis, we created a new decision framework to maximize FC's container operations at one of its ports, Port A (PA). We grouped containers from a single ship as an interdependent set of deliveries, forming a single cycle. / (cont.) Accounting for various constraints and potential backhauls, our optimization maximized the profit of a single cycle. The decisions made by the optimization achieved a weekly profit improvement of over 30% without affecting service quality. Supplementing our model, we conducted a sensitivity analysis on the number of containers and dedicated drivers to provide FC insight into its optimal asset size at PA. / by Tae Whee Lee [and] Ronald Po. / M.Eng.in Logistics

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 67-68). / Currently, no adequate method exists for determining how frequently a retail store in a supermarket chain should receive deliveries from its distribution center. Existing methods neglect many crucial constraints, such as the necessity for deliveries to fall on fixed days of the week, severely limited shelf space, and the inability for many stores to hold additional overstock product in a backroom. This paper addresses the problem by outlining a new method for determining the delivery frequency by developing a simulation model for the replenishment process of a supermarket chain. The model can also be used to provide insight into other aspects of the replenishment process, such as shelf space allocation, and reorder rules. Using this model, we were able to show that significant cost savings were available to the supermarket chain we worked with on the project by changing the delivery schedules for their stores. / by Christopher Wayne Kerslake. / M.Eng.in Logistics

Thesis: M. Eng. in Logistics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2014. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 55-56). / This research analyzes how to apply segmentation strategies in the nanostore retail market, focusing on a pilot company located in Bogota, Colombia. This study introduces two segmentation strategies: 1) a sketch segmentation strategy based on a basic ordering pattern analysis combined with an extended value matrix, sourced from a customer value matrix created by Marcus (1998); and 2) a precision segmentation strategy based on a diffusion mapping analysis in conjunction with a factor value matrix, derived from the principal component analysis. The work further illustrates how to apply the precision segmentation strategy in assortment planning, with the goal of identifying more valuable products for the pilot company. Considering that product market diffusion is the key to increase purchase intention in the nanostore market, using this strategy can allow the pilot company to utilize resources more efficiently to further improve the diffusion of those valuable products. / by Xiaodan Pan. / M. Eng. in Logistics

Thesis (S.M. in Technology and Policy)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2013. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 117-120). / The desirability, viability, and cost effectiveness of policies designed to incentivize growth of the wind energy industry are subject to widespread debate within the U.S. government, wind industry groups, and the general public. Specifically, extension of the wind production tax credit (PTC) is routinely contested whenever a scheduled expiration approaches. While proponents of the policy argue that the policy is necessary for the wind energy industry to continue to expand, opponents contend that the wind energy industry no longer needs the PTC in order to remain viable. This thesis evaluates alternative wind energy incentive policies, the short- and long-term effect of the PTC on wind capacity and generation, and the ten-year projected costs and cost effectiveness associated with three PTC renewal options based on future wind capacity and generation projections. The primary lesson is that unless the wind energy industry grows at an exceptionally rapid pace over the next ten years, PTC renewal involves a tradeoff between total cost and cost effectiveness. If overall wind capacity continues to grow at an even faster pace than over the preceding ten years, allowing the PTC to expire at the end of 2013 is the cheapest and most cost effective option in terms of dollars per gigawatt of wind capacity installed or per kilowatt-hour of power generated from wind energy. If the wind industry performs at or below most current projections, renewing the PTC over the long-term is the most expensive, but most cost effective option. However, a more sustainable option could be achieved if the PTC and its frequent expirations and extensions are replaced with a long-term, predictable, and simple tax policy that is not a recurring source of uncertainty for the entire industry. / by Patrick C. Ernst. / S.M.in Technology and Policy