Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Chemical Engineering; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references. / by Louis E. Herena. / S.M. / M.B.A.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 132-140). / by Eric W. Partlan. / S.M. / M.B.A.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-79). / by Brent R. Beabout. / S.M. / M.B.A.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 91-93). / by Rasheed El-Moslimany. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / by Esteban A. Guerrero Jaimes. / S.M.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 50). / by Don J. Lee. / S.M. / M.B.A.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. / by Jayson S. Kunzler. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2000. / Also available online at the MIT Theses Online homepage <http://thesis.mit.edu>. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 103-105). / For the past two decades, rising customer expectations and increased global competition have forced automotive manufacturers around the world to significantly improve the efficiency of their production operations. One critical area of improvement has been in external logistics, logistics involving shipment of materials from external suppliers to final assembly plants. This thesis focuses on potential cost savings and procedural improvements from the implementation of kanban systems for external logistics. These are called external kanban systems. This analysis covers many facets of external kanban systems, including their benefits over traditional external logistics systems, their impact on transportation methods, their effect on inventories, and their and their anticipated effect on organizational learning in the final assembly plant. This project was pursued to reduce the cost and improve the reliability of external logistics at Ford Motor Company's Saarlouis Assembly Plant (Ford-Saarlouis). At Ford-Saarlouis, the implementation of these external kanban systems served as a critical portion of the replenishment process, as a training tool to familiarize plant employees with kanban systems, and as a template for future external logistics improvements. / by Roger (Chip) Zaenglein, Jr. / S.M.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 71). / In order to optimize product designs it is necessary to quickly evaluate many candidate materials in terms of performance and processing costs. Evaluation using physical prototypes yields concrete results but is time intensive and costly when dealing with multiple optimization objectives. As an alternative, computer aided simulation is a reliable means of material evaluation and selection, is increasingly available to smaller companies due to the shrinking cost of computation, and is essential for handling the dual optimization objectives of manufacturability and performance in a timely and cost effective manner. To support this thesis, the author first examines iRobot Corporation's current process of experimental trial and error for evaluating and selecting a polymer material for use in the wheels of its robotic military vehicles. The author then demonstrates that the experimental derived performance results can be reasonably predicted using the viscoelastic properties of polymers, as captured in such models as the standard linear solid model, and that this predictability can be used to quickly simulate wheel performance with computer aided engineering (CAE) tools. / (cont.) Finally, the author performs a cost analysis of the current material evaluation/selection process versus the CAE approach to show the best path forward for incorporating CAE tools into the design process of smaller corporations like iRobot. / by Craig B. Abler. / S.M. / M.B.A.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 94-95). / This thesis is based on the author's seven-month internship based in the gears machining module of the Saturn Powertrain, Transmission Manufacturing plant. This module has four primary functional areas with buffers between each. Variable setup times, complex part flow paths, and unpredictable equipment downtime have complicated gear production since its inception in 1990. Scheduling and material flow related issues were a large source of the relativity poor performance in gears machining as it was a leading cause of downtime in the Powertrain plant, which often translated to downtime to the powertrain customer, general assembly. This project aimed to eliminate scheduling deficiencies by implementing material and information flow improvements and beginning setup time reduction. The material and information flow improvements involved a CONWIP-like (CONstant WIP) approach to inventory control. As part of the plant's kaizen process, the setup time reduction activities were intended to begin run size reductions as an enabler for future material and information flow simplification and better achievement of the manufacturing system's objectives. As outlined herein, once run size reductions are achieved, the next step for this facility should be toward a simpler system using kanban with standard-work-in-process. The work of this project resulted in significant improvements, as measured by the facility. In addition, the project provided invaluable lessons for the author which were both technical and people/leadership related. / by Brad D. Forry. / S.M.