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, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 45). / Biopharmaceutical companies are under constant pressure to deliver double-digit growth. In traditional markets such as the U.S., Japan, and the European Union growth is stagnant, and profit margins are falling due to increased price pressure from governments. As a result companies are looking to expand their customer bases. They see such opportunities in the emerging markets of China, India, and Eastern Europe where growth rates are in the double-digits. However, there are risks and uncertainties associated with expansion into emerging markets. These countries lack the regulatory systems and contract-enforcing mechanisms that most companies are used to operating under. In addition, pricing pressure from patients, governments, and healthcare organizations increases attention to the cost of goods. This document develops a framework for analyzing the potential for introducing a pharmaceutical product into a predetermined emerging market. The framework includes three steps. The first step is market assessment. The second step focuses on the supply chain. Information from market research is used to propose and evaluate alternative operational structures, to reduce costs, and to facilitate market entry. / (cont.) The third step involves financial modeling using Monte Carlo Simulation to account for uncertainty in the information collected from the market assessment and supply chain analysis. The framework is applied in a case study which involves the Genzyme Corporation and evaluates the Chinese market for its cholesterol lowering drug, Cholestagel. / by Hong Tuyet Hong. / 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, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 82). / Productivity improvements in manufacturing facilities have been studied in detail and there are many standardized tools and frameworks readily available to the industry for implementation. However the concept of productivity improvement in large engineering projects that involve high white-collar job content is less clearly understood. While lean concepts like value streams or continuous improvement apply to this environment there are no ready tools available for implementing a lean improvement initiative. This thesis applies lean and concurrent engineering concepts to large scale engineering design and development projects. ABB Lummus, the sponsor company for the internship behind this thesis, is in the business of executing such large-scale projects. Lummus is an EPC contractor providing engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services for building manufacturing plants. EPC projects run for few years and involve coordination of efforts by hundreds of engineering staff. There are inherently many productivity and information flow issues in such projects. EPC industry in general has been facing significant operational efficiency difficulties leading to cost and schedule overruns in recent years. / (cont.) The main issue was identified as rework due to the fact that the existing project structures do not deal with concurrent engineering nature of the projects. In this thesis we leverage the concepts a combination of lean value streams, Design Structure Matrix (DSM) and Theory of Constraints (TOC) to propose a value streams based organization for EPC projects. We show how this approach addresses the common problem in the EPC projects and sets the stage for improving productivity. The discussion in this thesis has helped launch an initiative that has enabled the acceptance of value streams and DSM techniques at ABB Lummus. Currently a dedicated program is planning a large (> 1 Bn Euro) EPC project along the line of value streams. The following are the key contributions in this thesis: From first principles we define a way to decompose an EPC downstream project into nine value streams. We use DSM to analyze a key value stream in detail and show the need for a value-stream-based organization. Using value streams and DSM we enable the implementation of TOC planning in EPC projects and show how these tools complement each other. / by Krishnan Raghunathan. / S.M. / M.B.A.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2007. / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 75, 77). / Because of the increasingly globalized world we live in, companies today are very interested in going overseas to develop and utilize global engineering resources. By doing so, they hope to take advantage of new global product development (GPD) enablers and motivators such as the internet, new collaborative information technology tools, access to new markets, and the increasing availability of low-cost engineering talent. While globalization has significantly decreased barriers so that more companies are hurrying to move engineering activities to its global sites, it is no secret that GPD teams pose significant coordination challenges. Cost savings from lower labor rates abroad can easily be eaten up by the increased coordination costs required to manage overseas interactions between local and global activities. This paper introduces a model that maps a project's coordination structure to help managers decide which activities should be allocated to a global site and which ones should be kept at home. It introduces a new multi-site coordination matrix based on the Design Structure Matrix and an optimization model that chooses where to locate activities to minimize project coordination costs. / (cont.) A key principle the model relies on is the modularization of activities at each site for efficient organization design. This method was employed to design a GPD plan for the Advanced Manufacturing Engineering department at Honeywell Aerospace. / by Sabrina Chang. / S.M. / M.B.A.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2007. / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Includes bibliographical references. / With customer satisfaction and lifecycle product quality becoming a competitive advantage, technology companies are motivated to look beyond their historical focus on forward supply chain management. Operational excellence in customer returns management, failure analysis, and closed loop corrective action is taking on an increasingly important role as companies strive to improve their business processes, policies and supply chains to achieve a world-class leadership position in their industry. In the competitive high-tech industry, companies face a number of challenges in managing customer returns and re-architecting their failure analysis supply chains to support a closed loop corrective action approach to product quality. Supporting globally distributed customers through a diverse network of outsourced manufacturing, repair, failure analysis and logistics partners increases the complexity of the supply chain architecting problem. This thesis proposes a holistic enterprise architecting approach, including governance, process, network design, organization, enabling technology, and performance management elements that should be considered when re-architecting the failure analysis supply chain. During this process, strategic decisions need to be made regarding supply chain designs that are aligned with the vision of the enterprise. / (cont.) Operations managers and leaders can use data-driven, collaborative approaches supported by decision support tools like the "Decision Model for Failure Analysis Supply Chain" to align decisions with customer value and stakeholders' needs. Implementing changes based on these strategic decisions requires understanding organizational dynamics within the enterprise. An understanding of the "frame of reference" that guides decision makers can help address implementation challenges. In addition, communication, training and alignment of incentives across functional groups to encourage collaboration can allow enterprises to make strategic decisions that are successfully implemented. The strategies proposed in this thesis are intended to aid managers in making monumental changes to their "reverse" operations and exceeding customer expectations. / by Tejaswini Hebalkar. / S.M. / M.B.A.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 64-65). / Amazon.com is a publicly-held company headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It revolutionized the retail industry by being one of the first major companies to sell goods over the Internet. It is an international company servicing countries throughout the world with goods ranging from books to jewelry. Amazon.com fulfills its customers' orders through a series of fulfillment centers throughout the United States. The goal of this thesis is to present a framework for testing and validating off-peak demand allocation strategies. Using Amazon.com as a primary study, this framework explores variable cost and transportation cost for the retail industry. The Amazon.com organization is discussed. Then a presentation on variable cost and transportation cost is introduced. A model is then introduced that ties variable and transportation costs together. This thesis concludes with a discussion on labor and transportation improvements implemented by other companies. / by Carin H. Chan. / S.M. / M.B.A.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 66-67). / Strategic inventory management has become a major focus for Honeywell Aerospace as the business unit challenged itself to meeting cost reduction goals while maintaining a high level of service to its customers. This challenge has become particularly important as customers have steered their purchase decisions from focusing only on capability and quality to including cost performance as well. To do so, Honeywell Aerospace's Planning and Asset Management group is undertaking a three-year effort to re-engineer its inventory planning systems with the goal of increasing planner productivity, improving supply chain responsiveness, and reducing overall inventory. This internship forms the building blocks of this strategy by leveraging existing software available in the industry and applying it to Honeywell's supply chain. Through two pilot programs with different supply chain designs, this internship analyzed the cost and benefit of transforming the company's inventory management strategy. In addition, this internship attempts to identify the challenges associated with such an enormous change, compare them with challenges with implementation in other industries in order to prepare management for full implementation across all product lines. These challenges range from leadership buy-in and information readiness to implementation feasibility both within Honeywell manufacturing and its suppliers. / by Billy S. Lo. / S.M. / M.B.A.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 65). / With an economy and customer base that is global, companies are increasingly expanding outside their home country's borders. Many times this is done to take advantage of lower labor or material rates, to increase proximity to the customer, to decrease logistics and transportation costs, to avoid tariffs and other taxes as well as many other factors. How does a company take advantage of the benefits of global operations while still taking into account the corporate strategy and risks associated with a location? By looking beyond standard matrix analysis tools that provide a one number comparison of potential locations, this thesis will expand the existing tools to incorporate the views of Enterprise Architecting to provide a more complete picture of how the decision to expand to one location versus another supports the desired architecture of the firm. This thesis combines analytical hierarchy process with a two level decision matrix to quantify the score of each location. A risk profile was developed to quantify the risk associated with specific locations and criteria in order to provide a more complete picture of the potential costs and benefits of building a facility in a certain location. This more complete view of location analysis will provide a tool that is both repeatable and reliable in its results and allows for an objective decision to be made on location in terms of the critical factors. / by Briana F. Johnson. / S.M. / M.B.A.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 57). / In today's electronics industry, fast time-to-market (TTM) and time-to-profit (TTP) is key to customer satisfaction and firm competitiveness. Optimizing the product development and new product introduction (NPI) process is particularly critical for products in dynamic market segments such as consumer electronics and telecommunications. This analysis will utilize a case study to define the current state of the development process for a top electronics manufacturing services (EMS) player conducting original design manufacturing (ODM) projects in a dynamic market. The analysis will identify process and organizational improvements that will eliminate product development waste in support of accelerating TTM and TTP using an enterprise perspective. / by Elena Jean Folgo. / S.M. / M.B.A.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division; and, (M.B.A.) -- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 85). / Virtual Business System (VBS) is a visual-based analytics and real-time information displaying system. It first started at Raytheon's Andover manufacturing facility in early 2000 with the strategic objectives of linking Lean and Six Sigma behavior to customers' successes and gradually transforming Raytheon into a Lean workplace. VBS dashboards are projected onto flat screen panels located throughout the factory floor such that anyone on the floor can view the production line status in real-time. This thesis focuses on developing a new VBS dashboard and using it to transform the enterprise. Leveraging the success in manufacturing deployment, this thesis describes Raytheon's initial attempt of extending VBS to the engineering arena, with the goals of driving Lean and Six Sigma behavior to the next level, transforming problem solving behavior from reactive to proactive and from containment to prevention, redefining quality control and performance metrics to better reveal business risks and opportunities and eliminating undesirable aspects in cost, cycle time and information latency. The VBS dashboard described in this thesis provides root cause "drill-down" capabilities for quality control and performance assessment, which leads to cycle time reduction, early stage problem resolution and defect prevention. VBS changes data ownership culture from privatize to publicize, which couples employees' actions to responsibilities and enhances proactive problem solving attitude. VBS dashboard is also a one-stop shop for data collection and analysis, which eliminates non-value added work for processing and fetching data from multiple sources. Last but not least, VBS dashboards build on modular development architecture, which enables quick turnaround on deliverables. / (cont.) Therefore, VBS is considered the "disruptive technology" of many existing corporate information technology systems and the Andon boards. / by Purdy P. Ho. / M.B.A. / S.M.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 73-74). / Many companies have realized significant value through the application of lean principles to manufacturing and supply chain operations. Dell Inc. in particular garnered international fame for its ability to manufacture and deliver computers using a lean, direct-to-customer approach that provided a tremendous competitive advantage. The Author suggests that these same lean principles can be applied to improve a firm's service and support operations, while acknowledging some important nuances of applying lean in a customer service environment. The Author calls to light a key differentiator between lean manufacturing and lean customer service. Specifically, while customers use relatively consistent value systems to assess manufacturing operations, different customer segments typically value customer service in very different ways. Thus, lean customer service must begin by thoroughly characterizing the value expectations and contributions of each customer segment. After characterizing these value systems, a firm must design a support channel architecture aligned with the value exchange system of the entire customer population. After designing a lean channel architecture, lean principles may be tactically applied to optimize performance within individual channels. This research project focused on improving customer service operations at Dell by using lean principles to: 1. Establish a data-driven, strategic architecture for Dell's consumer support division and 2. Identify operational improvement opportunities to drive the tactical execution of that strategy. The project began with a benchmarking study of customer service strategies at companies such as Best Buy, Apple, Fed-Ex, Amazon.com, GM, and Comcast. / (cont.) The Author then proposes a "Lean Support Channel Architecture" using on-line and retail service channels to offload demand from the call centers, effectively eliminating waste from call centers. Finally, the Author examines how lean principles can be tactically applied to a retail service channel to enable the cost-effective delivery of retail support in line with the support channel architecture proposed. / by Hannah Elizabeth McClellan. / S.M. / M.B.A.