Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 216-230). / Large engineering projects design, engineer and construct much of the world's energy, transportation and defense infrastructure. These large scale engineering endeavors are highly visible, have long lasting impacts and are of major economic significance. Yet despite their importance they frequently suffer from cost overruns and long delays and deliver systems with operational shortcomings. A contributing factor to the challenge of large projects is that the project enterprise is created by separate firms being brought together by the project sponsor, typically via formal contracts. Success requires multiple firms with hundreds (possibly thousands) of engineers working together to efficiently create complex product systems within an environment of high uncertainty. In an attempt to improve project outcomes, sponsors often endeavor to create "alignment" between themselves and their key contractors. In practice, alignment has proved difficult to create and to sustain. This research explores the policies and actions taken by firms that give rise to alignment. The large engineering projects studied for this research were offshore oil and gas field developments. grounded theory method, supplemented by formal dynamic model building, was used to investigate the causal mechanisms that support, or inhibit, the generation of alignment. The research revealed that alignment is founded on the collective understanding of the project, incorporating the firm's separate interests, and inter-firm trust. Furthermore the two antecedents of alignment act together to form a self-enforcing alignment mechanism. Six factors (system architecture, organizational design, contract design, risk, metrics and incentives) were identified that establish the inter-firm interactions through which collective understanding and inter-firm trust are created. These findings are organized into a framework that guides policy selection with a view to enabling the generation, and sustainment, of alignment. / (cont.) A grounded theory method, supplemented by formal dynamic model building, was used to investigate the causal mechanisms that support, or inhibit, the generation of alignment. The research revealed that alignment is founded on the collective understanding of the project, incorporating the firm's separate interests, and inter-firm trust. Furthermore the two antecedents of alignment act together to form a self-enforcing alignment mechanism. Six factors (system architecture, organizational design, contract design, risk, metrics and incentives) were identified that establish the inter-firm interactions through which collective understanding and inter-firm trust are created. These findings are organized into a framework that guides policy selection with a view to enabling the generation, and sustainment, of alignment. / by Nicholas McKenna. / Ph.D.

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-96). / This thesis is a part of the Supply Chain 2020 research project which seeks to study best practices in supply chain management in multiple industries in order to develop a deeper understanding of key principles and practices characterizing the creation of excellent supply chains through a long-term research agenda. This thesis addresses the first phase of the research by concentrating on the aerospace industry and by focusing on Rolls-Royce through a case study. The objective of the thesis is to conduct an exploratory study of the best practices in supply chain management in the aircraft engine manufacturing industry, and how these practices impact the competitive positioning of an engine manufacturer within the industry. The analysis involves a broad review of the current state and future directions of the aerospace industry by tracing the key factors shaping its evolution and by identifying the major strategic forces that would influence its future. Within this general industry context, the thesis analyzes Rolls-Royce's position in the industry as a leading aircraft engine manufacturer and presents a focused study of Rolls-Royce's supply chain management practices. / (cont.) In particular, the thesis involves a deeper exploration of the aircraft engine manufacturing business segment of Rolls-Royce and strives to understand the company's supply chain management practices, by examining the role of major factors that have proven crucial to effective supply chain management within the company. The thesis also presents more specific case study examples that track the implementation and results of major supply chain management initiatives. Finally, the supply chain design and management practices are analyzed from the perspective of their role in the company's business strategy. This is accomplished by employing a number of business strategy frameworks to understand the key factors that determine the competitiveness of a tier one supplier in the aerospace industry, such as Rolls- Royce, and by examining how those factors have affected Rolls-Royce's supply chain management strategies and practices. / by Mohit Tiwari. / M.Eng.in Logistics

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2013. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 223-232). / Systems Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) is a powerful new hazard analysis method designed to go beyond traditional safety techniques-such as Fault Tree Analysis (FTA)-that overlook important causes of accidents like flawed requirements, dysfunctional component interactions, and software errors. Although traditional techniques have been effective at analyzing and reducing accidents caused by component failures, modem complex systems have introduced new problems that can be much more difficult to anticipate, analyze, and prevent. In addition, a new class of accidents, component interaction accidents, has become increasingly prevalent in today's complex systems and can occur even when systems operate exactly as designed and without any component failures. While STPA has proven to be effective at addressing these problems, its application thus far has been ad-hoc with no rigorous procedures or model-based design tools to guide the analysis. In addition, although no formal structure has yet been defined for STPA, the process is based on a control-theoretic framework that could be formalized and adapted to facilitate development of automated methods that assist in analyzing complex systems. This dissertation defines a formal mathematical structure underlying STPA and introduces a procedure for systematically performing an STPA analysis based on that structure. A method for using the results of the hazard analysis to generate formal safety-critical, model-based system and software requirements is also presented. Techniques to automate both the STPA analysis and the requirements generation are introduced, as well as a method to detect conflicts between safety requirements and other functional model-based requirements during early development of the system. / by John P. Thomas IV. / Ph.D.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 93-94). / The purpose of this research is to discuss employment in the United States (US) service sector. The main concern is not pinpointing numerical estimates, but instead identifying trends which lead to job growth or job loss. Like manufacturing jobs that have been lost to offshore locations or productivity gains, so too are service jobs at risk. Offshoring - the outsourcing of business functions overseas - and automation have the same effect of displacing workers. What keeps a service job in the US and what makes it ideal to ship overseas or replace with a computer? Consumers have several choices between different product and service offerings. And, different products need varied levels of aftermarket service. What makes customers go out and spend money rather than completing tasks themselves? This thesis attacks these questions by outlining characteristics of products, services, and consumers which could help label jobs as "safe" or "at-risk." First is a discussion of these characteristics. Then, the range of product and service alternatives that consumers have to choose from is presented and applied to examples. / (cont.) Overall, jobs which may be at-risk are those occupations that can be offshored, automated, or easily performed by consumers themselves. On the other hand, jobs that may prove safer are those with high barriers to self-service, those that offer a customized service or experience, and those that require physical contact to be performed. / by Eric D. Gorney. / S.M.

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2011. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 78-79). / This thesis involves railcar fleet sizing strategies with a specific company in the chemical industry. We note that the identity of the company in this report has been disguised, and some portions of the fleets have been omitted to mask their actual sizes. However, all analysis in this thesis was conducted on actual data. In our research, we evaluate the appropriateness of both deterministic and stochastic fleet sizing models for this company. In addition, we propose an economic model that is adapted from a basic inventory management policy that can be applied to fleet sizing in order to arrive at a cost-driven solution. Through our research, we demonstrate that the fleet sizing strategy of this company can be improved by incorporating transit time variability into the fleet sizing model. Additionally, we show that fleet sizes can be reduced by accurately characterizing the distributions of the underlying transit and customer holding time data. Finally, we show the potential value of considering economic factors to arrive at a fleet sizing decision that balances the cost of over-capacity with the cost of an insufficient supply of railcars. / by Jay Jagatheesan and Ryan Kilcullen. / M.Eng.in Logistics

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-80). / This thesis examines the supply chain management practices of the Boeing Commercial Airplane Company within the context of the global aerospace industry. The methodology used for this study includes a study of emerging supply chain management concepts and practices in the aerospace industry based on a review of the open literature, research performed on aerospace supply chain management issues by MIT's Lean Aerospace Initiative, and selected interviews with aerospace industry experts. The results show that there are significant changes in supply chain management practices in the aerospace industry. These changes include restructuring and closer integration of supplier networks to achieve efficiency gains, delegating greater design and production responsibility to major suppliers through strategic supplier partnerships along with having key suppliers evolve greater system and subsystem integration capabilities, emphasizing a lifecycle view supply chain design and management to reduce lifecycle cost of products and systems, and building supply chain capabilities supporting maintenance and aftermarket logistics services as a major new strategic thrust to provide improved customer satisfaction and retain long-term customer loyalty. The thesis focuses on Boeing's supply chain management practices through a case study to explore these developments in a more concrete enterprise context. / by Daglar Cizmeci. / M.Eng.in Logistics

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2015. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 219-227). / The combination of air traffic growth and airport capacity limitations has resulted in significant congestion throughout the US National Airspace System, which imposes large costs on the airlines, passengers and society. Absent opportunities for capacity expansion, the mitigation of air traffic congestion requires improvements in (i) the utilization of airport capacity to enhance operating efficiency at the tactical level (i.e., over each day of operations), and/or (ii) the allocation of airport capacity to the airlines to limit over-capacity scheduling at the strategic level (i.e., months in advance of the day of operations). This thesis develops an integrated approach to airport congestion mitigation that jointly optimizes the utilization of airport capacity and the design of airport capacity allocation mechanisms. First, we focus on airport capacity utilization. We formulate an original Dynamic Programming model that optimizes, at the tactical level, the selection of runway configurations and the balancing of arrival and departure service rates to minimize congestion costs, for any given schedule of flights. The model integrates the stochasticity of airport operations into a dynamic decision-making framework. We implement exact and approximate Dynamic Programming algorithms that, in combination, enable the real-time implementation of the model. Results show that optimal policies are path-dependent, i.e., depend on prior decisions and on the stochastic evolution of the system, and that the model can reduce congestion costs, compared to advanced heuristics aimed to replicate typical decisions made in practice and to existing approaches based on deterministic queue dynamics. Second, we integrate the model of airport capacity utilization into a macroscopic queuing model of airport congestion. The resulting model quantifies the relationships between flight schedules, airport capacity and flight delays at the strategic level, while accounting for the way airport capacity utilization procedures can vary tactically to maximize operating efficiency. Results suggest that the model estimates the average departure queue lengths, the variability of departure queue lengths and the average arrival and departure delays at the three major airports in the New York Metroplex relatively well. The application of the model shows that the strong nonlinearities between flight schedules and flight delays observed in practice are captured by the model. Third, we develop an Integrated Capacity Utilization and Scheduling Model (ICUSM) that jointly optimizes scheduling interventions for airport capacity allocation at the strategic level and airport capacity utilization at the tactical level. Scheduling interventions start with a schedule of flights provided by the airlines, and reschedule a selected set of flights to reduce imbalances between demand and capacity, while minimizing interference with airline competitive scheduling. The ICUSM optimizes such interventions, while accounting for the impact of changes in flight schedules on airport operations. It relies on an original modeling architecture that integrates a Stochastic Queuing Model of airport congestion, our Dynamic Programming model of capacity utilization, and an Integer Programming model of scheduling interventions. We develop an iterative solution algorithm that converges in reasonable computational times. Results suggest that substantial delay reductions can be achieved at busy airports through limited changes in airline schedules. It is also shown that the proposed integrated approach to airport congestion mitigation performs significantly better than a typical sequential approach where scheduling and operating decisions are made separately. Last, we build upon the ICUSM to design, optimize and assess non-monetary mechanisms for scheduling interventions that ensure inter-airline equity and enable airline collaboration. Under the proposed mechanism, the airlines would provide their preferred schedules of flights, their network connections, and the relative scheduling flexibility of their flights to a central decision-maker, who may then consider scheduling adjustments to reduce anticipated delays. We develop a lexicographic architecture that optimizes such interventions based on efficiency (i.e., meeting airline scheduling preferences), equity (i.e., balancing scheduling adjustments fairly among the airlines), and on-time performance (i.e., mitigating airport congestion) objectives. Theoretical and computational results suggest that inter-airline equity can be achieved at no, or small, losses in efficiency, and that accounting for airline scheduling preferences can significantly improve the outcome of scheduling interventions. / by Alexandre Jacquillat. / Ph. D.

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2013. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 53-54). / Agriculture is an industry where historical and current data abound. This paper investigates the numerous data sources available in the agricultural field and analyzes them for usage in supply chain improvement. We identified certain applicable data and investigated methods of using this data to make better supply chain decisions within the agricultural chemical distribution chain. We identified a specific product, AgChem, for this study. AgChem, like many agricultural chemicals, is forecasted and produced months in advance of a very short sales window. With improved demand forecasting based on abundantly-available data, Dow AgroSciences, the manufacturer of AgChem, can make better production and distribution decisions. We analyzed various data to identify factors that influence AgChem sales. Many of these factors relate to corn production since AgChem is generally used with corn crops. Using regression models, we identified leading indicators that assist to forecast future demand of the product. We developed three regressions models to forecast demand on various horizons. The first model identified that the price of corn and price of fertilizer affect the annual, nation-wide demand for the product. The second model explains expected geographic distribution of this annual demand. It shows that the number of retailers in an area is correlated to the total annual demand in that area. The model also quantifies the relationship between the sales in the first few weeks of the season, and the total sales for the season. And the third model serves as a short-term, demand-sensing tool to predict the timing of the demand within certain geographies. We found that weather conditions and the timing of harvest affect when AgChem sales occur. With these models, Dow AgroSciences has a better understanding of how external factors influence the sale of AgChem. With this new understanding, they can make better decisions about the distribution of the product and position inventory in a timely manner at the source of demand. / by Derik Lafayette Smith and Satya Prakash Dhavala. / M.Eng.in Logistics

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 52). / The focus of this research is creating a framework to accurately assess the benefits of hub capability in an international distribution network for fast moving consumer packaged goods. The traditional inventory centralization dilemma requires an evaluation of whether the reduction in holding costs outweighs the increases in transportation and handling costs. We developed a mixed integer programming model to determine the benefits of adding hub capability to Consumer Co.'s Northwest Latin American import supply chain. Consumer Co.'s NWLA division imports products from Argentina, Brazil and Mexico to eleven countries within Central and South America, each operating a distribution center. By adding hub capability in the Colon Free Trade Zone, our model determined that the lowest cost could be achieved using a "Hybrid" solution, where some channels flowed through the hub and others were shipped direct. This network design would result in a 4.4% reduction in annual relevant costs. A counter-intuitive revelation was the fact that transportation costs could actually decrease. Similar to airlines, carriers can sometimes offer lower rates for indirect shipments passing through a high volume transit point instead of shipping the product directly through a less traveled route. Hub capability in the Colon Free Trade Zone also provides Consumer Co. with the flexibility to tailor their supply chain to potential changes in the fluctuating Latin American environment. Increasing customer expectations can lead to scenarios with higher safety stocks, for which centralization can provide the highest benefits. / by Sebastian Ortiz Duran and Richard Hawks. / M.Eng.in Logistics

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 60). / This thesis presents a framework for deciding which products to centralize in a regional distribution center and which products to store decentralized close to the customer sites, for each facility in a multi-echelon distribution network. Our research specifically focuses on developing an optimization model to determine the inventory positioning strategy that minimizes total costs. The model considers both inbound and outbound transportation costs along with inventory holding costs at all facilities in the network. The total cost and responsiveness of the optimal solution are compared with the baseline network, in which inventory is completely decentralized. Our analysis is performed using several products that have diverse characteristics, in terms of demand patterns, lead-times, product costs, service-level requirements, transportation modes, and supplier locations. A sensitivity analysis is performed to study how a variance in these parameters affects the optimal solution. The research suggests that for high volume commodity items the benefits of centralization are highly dependent upon the degree of lane consolidation. However, for low volume specialty items, centralization can provide immediate benefits with no change to the existing transportation network. / by Deepak Avari and Naman Dayal. / M.Eng.in Logistics