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 (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

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2013. / "February 2013." Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 108-112). / Historically, 70% of change initiatives in organizations and businesses fail. Change involves people. Throughout decades, as the generations change, we've seen a major change in the leader's approach and the medium they have used to connect with people. It is predicted that enterprise social media will become the main communications channel for 20% of business users by 2014. Investigation in this thesis shows the extent to which corporate leaders have used enterprise social media to bring a change in an organization. This research is an examination of how enterprise social media can deliver value in bringing an enterprise transformation. Fundamentals that have been laid out by Dr. Kotter to implement change in the organizations by the corporate leaders still hold. This thesis includes a practical examination of the effectiveness of using enterprise social media for each of the Dr. Kotter's 8-stages for leading change. To investigate the impact of enterprise social media in enterprise transformation, several full scale and brief interviews were conducted with key stakeholders in small, medium, and large scaled organizations. In addition to the standard Lean Advancement Initiative (LAI) suite of tools, the effectiveness of social media was evaluated in various stages using Kaplan's Balanced Scorecard, Force Field Analysis, Matrix Scorecard, System Dynamics Model, and a Weighted Scoring Card. Analysis suggests that based on the existing set of enterprise social tools, enterprise social media can play a key role in 3 of the 8 steps of leading change described by Dr. Kotter. Currently, enterprise social media can provide limited advantages in 5 of the 8 steps of leading change. Going forward, with the emerging set of enterprise social tools that are more integrated into business processes, the role of enterprise social media in bringing an enterprise transformation is expected to increase significantly. / by Raj (Pratik) Rajani. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2013. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 107-110). / Companies are always looking for ways to reduce their costs, cost reductions which allow companies to increase their overall profits. There are various cost reductions strategies, such as: change materials and/or design of the products, change suppliers, and offshore engineering. This last strategy, offshore engineering, is a common practice in today's global industries. This thesis applies the cost-reduction strategy of offshore engineering to the automotive industry. Specifically, this thesis presents an analysis of the Seat Subsystem, which assists the corporation in selecting which components of the subsystem are optimal to be offshored. Based on product architecture design structure matrices, this analysis identifies clusters of components within the Seat Subsystem which are highly interrelated. After adding three variables: experience needed to develop each of the components, current experience of the offshore office, and supplier location of these components, a proposal of which components should be offshored is presented. Further, in this thesis a Process/Organization DSM is used to identify when in the seat development process the Seat Engineers have closer relations with other departments within the organization. The results of this Process/Organization DSM will assist the company in creating travel plans for the engineers. After establishing which components of the seat should be offshored, an additional analysis is presented which assists the organization in determining where to offshore these components. This analysis is based on three frameworks: CAGE, ADDING, and Porter's and virtual diamond. A summary of the results of this analysis presents a quantitative evaluation of three offshoring options: China, India, and Mexico. In addition, in this thesis an analysis is presented to determine how the Seat Organization Architecture needs to be adapted in order to support the Offshore Strategy. This organization transformation is based on three methodologies: Enterprise Architecture Sequence Model, 4P's of Strategy, and Seven Strategy Questions. At the end of this thesis, a six-step process is presented to assist other organizations when an offshore strategy is needed to breakdown the development of a product or system and determine where to offshore each of the components. / by Carlos Xavier Zamora Torres. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M. in Engineering and Management)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2013. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (page 61). / This thesis used Dr. Leveson's STAMP (Systems-Theoretic Accident Model and Process) model of accident causation to analyze a friendly fire accident that occurred on 22 March 03 between a British Tornado aircraft and a US Patriot Missile battery. This causation model analyzes system constraints, control loops, and process models to identify inadequate control structures leading to hazards and preventative measures that may be taken to reduce the effect of these hazards. By using a system-based causation model like STAMP, rather than a traditional chain of events model, this thesis aimed to identify systemic factors and component interactions that may have contributed to the accident, rather than simply analyzing component failures. Additionally, care was taken to understand the rationale for decisions that were made, rather than assigning blame. The analysis identified a number of areas in which control flaws or inadequacies led to the friendly fire incident. A set of recommendations was developed that may help to prevent similar accidents from occurring in the future. / by Scott McCarthy. / S.M.in Engineering and Management

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 48-53). / A business-to-business (B2B) e-marketplace brings together buyers and sellers using the Internet to conduct or facilitate business transactions. They came onto the scene in the late 1990's. There are independent exchanges, those formed by industry consortia, and private exchanges which are formed for the exclusive use of the single owner and its suppliers and customers. E-marketplaces support nearly all major types of B2B transactions, such as sales via catalogs, contracts, auctions, procurement via reverse auctions and RFQ's (request for quotes), and trading via exchanges. At the height of the dot-com boom, there were approximately 2,500 B2B exchanges worldwide. There was tremendous hype and expectations surrounding them. They were to revolutionize the way companies do business and fundamentally transform industries and the global economy. But the B2B e-marketplace has experienced a shakeout, and most have merged, closed down, or been converted to software vendors. Only about 1,000 are still operating, and this number will likely decline further. Even so, there are still great benefits to be had in the B2B exchange arena. B2B digital marketplaces reduce transaction costs by automating purchasing and sales processes. They reduce information inefficiencies by making prices more transparent and aggregating relevant real-time industry news into one easily accessible place, and they diminish geographic limitations. This research examines the different types and strategies of B2B marketplaces, the rise and fall of exchanges, examples of successful marketplaces, and future trends in the area. / by Denise Nicole Minier. / M.Eng.in Logistics

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2010. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 117-121). / Vehicle weight reduction is a known strategy to address growing concerns about greenhouse gas emissions and fuel use by passenger vehicles. We find that every 10% reduction in vehicle weight can cut fuel consumption by about 7%. In the U.S., vehicle weight reduction is essential for meeting future, more stringent fuel economy standards. New vehicles are required on average to achieve at least 34.1 miles per gallon (MPG) by year 2016, up from 28.8 MPG today. Scenarios of future vehicle characteristics and sales mix indicate that the target is aggressive. New vehicles must not only become lighter, but also forgo horsepower improvements, and progressively use advanced, more fuel-efficient powertrains, such as hybrid-electric drives. We can reduce weight by substituting some of the iron and steel used in vehicles with lighter-weight high-strength steel or aluminum, redesigning the vehicle, and/or downsizing the vehicle. Using these approaches, it is possible to achieve up to 40% (690 kg) vehicle weight reduction. However, the cost associated with manufacturing lighter-weight vehicles is a nontrivial $3 to $4 per kilogram of total weight saved. In addition, the life-cycle energy impacts of using alternative lightweight materials, which tend to be more energy-intensive to process, must also be considered. In this dissertation, the energy implications of pursuing this lightweighting strategy are explored on a vehicle life-cycle- and vehicle fleet system-level basis. A model of the energy and material flows through the evolving vehicle fleet system over time has been developed, which accounts for potential changes in future vehicle weight and material composition. The resultant changes in material production energy and fleet fuel savings, which are the main energy burdens for the entire product system - the vehicle fleet - are estimated. The new 2016 fuel economy standards and more stringent standards beyond can realize significant fuel savings of 1,550 billion liters through year 2030. However, the advanced powertrains that are expected to enter the marketplace are heavier and require more energy to produce. Their production impact may be offset by efforts to use less energy-intensive high-strength steel to lightweight new vehicles, as well as efficiency gains in material processing. / by Lynette W. Cheah. / Ph.D.