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 50-54). / by Amit Wohl. / 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. 73). / by Andrew Merrill Terry. / S.M.

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 (p. 71). / by David R. Greenwood. / S.M.

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 (leaves 65-66). / by Yoel Roznitsky. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--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, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2000. / Also available online at the MIT Theses Online homepage <http://thesis.mit.edu>. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 80). / The industrial gas turbine (IGT) market is experiencing exponential growth where competition is based upon technical performance and time to market. Product sales are limited by the ability of the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) to coordinate manufacturers and assemblers to deliver turbines to customers in a timely manner. The company's logistics and supply chain systems have evolved from a traditional low volume job-shop environment and must now cope with a marked increase in product demand. OEM's must now manage the manufacture and assembly of thousands of turbine parts across an international and complex supply chain in a robust and agile manner. This requires the effective integration of internal and external logistics, supply chain and engineering talent. Current performance has been plagued with poor sourcing reliability, low quality and exploding lead times. This has resulted in sluggish response to customer demand and loss in earnings. This thesis seeks to recommend inventory placement strategies to improve sourcing reliability while identifying root causes and recommending improvements. It will also address the importance of the time-value of material in addressing investment and materials management decisions. / by Miriam Park. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Chemical Engineering; and, (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-85). / This thesis investigates potential improvements to the manufacturing process through the implementation of process analytical technologies (PAT) in the heavily regulated pharmaceutical industry. The thesis focuses on the identification, prioritization, evaluation, and implementation of Process Analytical Technologies (PAT's) to solve manufacturing issues. While full implementation of a solution is not a part of this thesis, development of an implementation plan is. In parallel to executing these four stages of the project, processes and tools for the assessment of future PAT ideas are developed. The ideas developed in this thesis were tested in an industrial setting, and several case studies are included from this work. Key results are that a rigorous business evaluation of a potential project from a financial and intangible viewpoint is necessary, that PAT can improve the efficiency of a manufacturing process both at the unit operation and entire system levels, and that the organizational structure of a pharmaceutical company and the regulatory authority will have to change in order to support the integration of PAT into the manufacturing plant. Ramifications of the new technology on the organization are presented along with recommendations for organizational change to better utilize PAT. / by Robert A. Garber. / M.B.A. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering; and, (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 77). / Submitted to the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Sloan School of Management on May 7, 2004 in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degrees of Master of Science in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Master of Business Administration ABSTRACT Many computer companies are seeking to grow their customization capability. As the market becomes increasingly commoditized, computer companies view customization as a way to differentiate their products and offer customer value. However, the implementation of customization programs has been difficult for many organizations. Sun Microsystems launched a customization program called Customer Ready Systems (CRS) through a grass-roots effort in manufacturing. CRS offered assemble-to-order, factory-integrated systems. Although CRS revenues had been growing, scalability was difficult and costs were increasing. CRS needed to evaluate its process and supply-chain from a strategic perspective to ensure alignment with the rest of the organization. To grow profitably, it also needed to reduce costs and increase scalability. This thesis focuses first on the question of whether or not Sun should reconfigure its supply chain to perform more, if not all, of its customization work at external manufacturers. It then turns to the question of whether or not the current internal customization process can be improved, and identifies two opportunities: pricing and process improvement in component removal for reconfiguration, and lead-time variability reduction. / (cont.) This thesis recommends organizational and tactical policies to improve the customization based on these analyses and implementation efforts. The research for this thesis was conducted during a seven month internship with Sun Microsystems' Worldwide Operations group and was affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Leaders for Manufacturing program. / by Lucia T. Wu. / M.B.A. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--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, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 89). / ES3, a wholly owned subsidiary of C&S Holdings, is a third party grocery and consumer goods distribution company operating a large distribution facility in York, PA. Under the traditional model for grocery distribution, manufacturers ship products to their manufacturing distribution centers (MDCs), where several products from the same manufacturers are combined in shipments and sent to retail distribution centers (RDCs). The distributors operating the RDCs combine product from several manufacturers to be shipped to individual retail outlets. Currently, in Phase I of its operations, ES3 improves on this model by replacing MDCs from several manufacturers with a single facility, consolidating orders from several manufacturers and reducing lead time and optimal lot sizes for distributors. Eventually, ES3 will reach Phase II of its operations, where certain products will bypass RDCs completely and be delivered directly to individual retail outlets. This thesis is concerned with efforts to build a model to quantify the benefit distributors receive from using ES3 in both Phase I and Phase II of its operations. The model was built using shipping, receiving, operations, and transportation data from C&S under the assumption that C&S was a good proxy for other distributors which are potential customers for ES3. The purpose of building the model was two-fold. First, ES3 would like to recruit distributors as customers and charge them for its services. The model will help demonstrate the savings these distributors can achieve. Second, distributors' savings increase as the number of manufacturers stored at ES3 increases. ES3 hopes to demonstrate this effect through the model and momentum for growth. The model quantifies savings in inventory costs, / (cont.) transportation costs, and operations costs as a function of the number and types of products the user chooses to source from ES3. These savings vary dramatically depending on the size of the distributor using the model, but can be very significant, especially for large distributors. / by Michael Martin Amati. / S.M.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M. in Ocean Systems Management)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Ocean Engineering; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 64). / The basis for this thesis involved a six and a half month LFM internship at the Amazon.com fulfillment center in the United Kingdom. The fulfillment center management sought insight into the substantial variation across the entire fulfillment center. This variation manifested itself primarily in two areas: the individual process path productivities of picking, pre-sort, re-bin and packing, and the overall system productivities of fulfillment center cycle time and throughput. Employee productivities, within picking, pre-sort, re-bin and packing, varied substantially, with this variation having a significant effect on throughput. This thesis uses discrete event simulation and the program SIMUL8 to model the overall system and analyze the effect of this variation. It discusses the design and development process for the model, proposes key questions relative to variation, analyzes different scenarios, and recommends specific actions for implementation. The overall goals of the internship included increasing fulfillment center throughput and decreasing cycle time. / by Cameron S. Price. / S.M.in Ocean Systems Management / M.B.A.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 121-122). / The industry-wide need for a robust method of transferring the manufacturing of a component from one location to another is addressed in this thesis. Work transfer activities can be initiated due to a number of business reasons. These reasons include: reducing general operating costs, increasing asset utilization, and reducing overhead costs by leveraging manufacturing synergies. However, in order to fully realize the benefits of a work transfer activity, a robust work transfer process is needed to mitigate the risks associated with work transfer activities. In this thesis, the work transfer process is studied with specific concentration on the implementation phase of the work transfer. The overall objective is to propose and document a robust work transfer implementation process that improves the reliability with which work transfers are executed. The current work transfer process at The Boeing Company, in addition to the strategic and business decisions that initiate work transfers and the selection of manufacturing processes and technologies, serve as the starting point of the work and associated considerations. In developing this recommended work transfer process, robustness was addressed as the risks associated with the implementation of work transfer activities and subsequent risk mitigation activities were identified, in cooperation with key stakeholders, via a failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA). These risk mitigation activities were then integrated into the current work transfer process, and the resulting overall process was documented. This recommended process was then assessed by comparing it with the current work transfer process on the basis of time and cost. The results of this assessment / indicate that the recommended work transfer is an improvement over the current work transfer process. The recommended process is presented generically, and as such is flexible due to its adaptability to individual situations. When implementing the recommended work transfer process, it is suggested that the responsibility for and authority of the work transfer process be assigned to an individual to ensure adherence to and adoption of the process. System-level interactions of factors within a manufacturing system are also investigated and presented in this thesis. The results of this investigation illustrate the need to consider the potential long-term system-level results when making business decisions. Finally, the issue of manufacturing flexibility is discussed, and the consideration of manufacturing mobility during the design of manufacturing processes is suggested. / y Kimberly Robyn Murdoch. / S.M. / M.B.A.