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, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 50). / Contact centers are operated by companies to answer customer inquiries via phone calls or email. Customers often equate the service they are provided while interacting with a contact center to the quality of a company's product offering. Therefore, a major concern is what service level the company should choose to provide. One means of measuring service level is speed of response (how quickly a customer inquiry is answered). In general, faster response requires more customer service agents for a given volume of inquiries. Phone response times are usually measured in minutes or seconds. Email response times are usually measured in hours or days. This paper examines customer expectations regarding email and phone inquiry response time, and examines various models for planning staffing requirements to meet these response times. The expectations for response time to phone calls are found to be stable, having not changed much in the last few decades. The expectations for response time to email inquiries have been increasing though, with customers demanding much faster response in the last few years. Many customers now expect response to their emails within hours rather than days, with a significant number now expecting response as quickly as one hour. The challenges of implementing faster response times to email are examined using a case study at a major online retailer. A model is also introduced for email service level planning, that allows for the fact that typical response times are much longer than for phone calls. / by Kristopher Carter. / 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, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-86). / The high technology industry suffers from a phenomenon that is common to many businesses and industries throughout the world - a "hockey-stick" demand skew. Such a skew derives its name from the shape of the quarterly demand curve as it is viewed across time. The demand curve is characterized by sales rates that are sluggish at the start of a quarter, before increasing dramatically by quarter-end, and then dropping off again after the close of the quarter. Despite its lauded Direct Model, Dell Computer Corporation is not exempt from issues concerning the hockey stick demand skew. A very definite quarterly skew exists for most of Dell's customer segments, particularly those in which a direct sales team is active. The author had the opportunity to spend seven months at Dell's facilities investigating this demand phenomenon. As an industry leader with their Direct Model, Dell's build-to-order strategy necessitates that systems are produced and shipped at a rate that closely mirrors the sales rate. The variability of a hockey-stick demand skew requires that the entire organization have the flexibility to adapt quickly to changes throughout the quarter. However, such flexibility does not come without a price. The end of quarter rush requires that manufacturing plan for excess capacity and work overtime to meet peak demand periods. Logistical costs rise due to the various expediting activities that must be undertaken. Accompanying these cost increases is a drop in gross margin at the end of the quarter as a result of changes and variability in procurement costs over the quarter. These factors effectively raise the marginal cost of systems built at the end of the quarter as compared to the beginning. In addition, an end-loaded sales demand places a large operational burden upon several pieces of the Dell organization. Manufacturing must not only be prepared with excess physical capacity at the end of a quarter, but must also have the necessary human resource capacity to accommodate these large swings in demand. These operational constraints provide a second impetus for a close examination of this issue at Dell. Finally, the greater the demand skew at Dell, the greater the financial risk for the company. The late demand swing is, in effect, a double-edged sword of risk for the organization. Not only does a large percentage of their demand for the quarter hit at once, but it hits at a time late in the quarter when there is little or no time to make up the difference if something were to happen. Any major disturbance within Dell's manufacturing structure, or that of their supply base, within the last two weeks of the quarter could have a unconstructive impact on unit volumes and total revenue for the quarter. For a company that is so intensely market driven, this is quite an unfavorable scenario. This triple nemesis of sub-optimal profitability, operational difficulties, and financial risk provided the impetus for this thesis work and project. Within Dell, the first order of business was to determine whether the hockey stick was internally or externally driven. After that determination was made, the author utilized non-linear programming tools to determine the optimal quarterly sales skew, based upon profitability measures. The final step was then to identify the drivers of the demand skew and to determine how they could best be manipulated to achieve the optimal skew. In this regard, Dell's Direct Model is notably well suited to the task. Without an intricate, multi-layered sales channel, alterations can easily be made within the sales and marketing arena that can immediately and dramatically change the visage of the quarterly sales skew. / by Toni Lynn Albers. / 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, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 67-68). / by Richard J. Welnick. / S.M.

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, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 60). / by Matthew W. Street. / 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, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 37-38). / Managing the product development process is of vital concern to corporations. A critical aspect of product development that negatively impacts program cost and timing is rework. Unfortunately, in large organizations with successive development cycles, the product, process and organizational complexity preclude simple solutions. Even given sufficient data, many organizations do not understand what constitutes good and bad performance relative to rework. Through research at General Motors Truck Product Group, a model was developed that forecasts expected total rework. The model assumes rework is a function of: 1) The product portfolio and timing; 2) The complexity of each product program; 3) The pattern of rework over time for product programs; 4) The "lifecycle age" of each product program. The model has four potential uses: A) To aid in portfolio/project planning; B) To provide a rework performance baseline for management; C) To evaluate initiatives with regards to their impact on design rework; D) To identify leverage targets for management attention and improvement. / by Matthew F. Bromberg. / 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 Chemical Engineering; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 75). / The cosmetics industry is an intensely competitive, fashion-driven industry. As such, new product launch processes are viewed to be a competitive advantage in promoting continued brand awareness in the market place. However, very few resources are in place to encourage manufacturer and retailer collaboration and to monitor new product launches during launch and after the initial 3-6 month promotion period. As a result, large trade inventories and product return charges negatively impact both the profitability of the manufacturer, Procter & Gamble (P&G), as well as their retail customers. This thesis concentrates on supply chain management methods to enhance the profitability of launching new products in the cosmetics industry to both P&G and one retail customer, Retailer A. Of the retailers that P&G sells cosmetics through, Retailer A represents one of the largest opportunities to reducing trade inventory and product return charges. An analysis presented in this thesis revealed that Retailer A ordered an average of 18 months of a new product during the first 2-3 months of launch for products released in the January 2000- May 2001 period. Research was conducted during a six and a half month internship within P&G's Product Supply group at the Cosmetics Division in Hunt Valley, MD. The internship was affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Leaders for Manufacturing Program. Outputs of this work include a high-level strategy for launching new products within this division, as well as logistics tactics developed via a dynamic supply chain model. Through theoretical and simulation analysis, the project revealed that implementing unique stocking and reordering strategies for launching new products based on item type and retail store sales volume results in significant savings to P&G and Retailer A. For Retailer A alone, the impact of implementing the project recommendations is estimated to be approximately a one million dollar reduction in final retail inventory, which translates into between a half a million and a one million dollar reduction in P&G's product return charges. In addition, an in-stock improvement opportunity is estimated to be one hundred and thirty thousand dollars, translating directly to improved service for the final consumer. / by Leslie E. Koenigs. / 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 74-75). / This thesis describes the work performed over a six and a half month internship at Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, NY. The thesis focuses on the implementation of a lean manufacturing system, modeled after the Toyota Production System, in the Kodak color film business. The goal of the system is to systematically eliminate all forms of waste from the production process in an attempt to reduce costs and inventory. This thesis approaches the problem from two different points of view. On the one hand, it takes a high level view of the entire supply chain and describes how material and information should flow through the supply chain. It highlights where inventory buffers should be located and which operations should be improved in order to reduce the size of these buffers. Finally, this thesis highlights the importance of leveling the customer demand signal in order to implement a true pull system using Kanbans. On the other hand, this thesis describes the implementation of lean manufacturing tools such as Kanban systems and Heijunka boards in some Kodak operations. This work includes the use of tools such as visual signals, cellular manufacturing, Kanbans, Heijunka boards, etc. The work performed over the internship sets the foundation for the transformation of the Kodak supply chain into a lean supply chain capable of dealing with uncertain demand. Additionally, the work can easily be transferred and applied to other Kodak businesses such as paper and photochemicals. / by Emanuele F. Gillio. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; and, (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 135-137). / The purpose of this research is to provide an academic, external perspective to facilitate the implementation and development of a new internal organization for Raytheon Missile Systems (RMS) with a focus on strategy and the organization. The new organization, named the Advanced Manufacturing Development Center (AMDC), is chartered to work concurrently with the design community to develop state-of-the-art manufacturing technology to compliment the next generation engineering designs. This thesis documents the efforts of a company implementing change detailing the specific challenges they faced. The principle lessons learned during the course of this project are (1) that effectively introducing change is very difficult and depends largely on thorough planning and understanding the culture and (2) that manufacturing innovation and development is a critical step to improving the manufacturing capabilities and providing a competitive advantage to a company. The defense industry is undergoing a lean transformation that focuses on "Better, Faster, Cheaper" defense systems demanding better products within a faster development timeframe at cheaper development and production costs. Defense companies have an external push to improve their manufacturing capabilities. In the context of the defense industry, adapting to change is a slow process given the industry's clockspeed and historical development. Making the challenge of effective implementation even more difficult is the lack of urgency at RMS's due to their success in the marketplace. Benchmarking and organizational studies specific to the industry and the company were conducted to identify best practices to provide a basis for the development of the AMDC. This project uses academic research to identify existing theories on manufacturing innovation and organizational change to overcome the socialization and cultural issues that ensued from implementing change and to improve the potential sustainability and impact of the AMDC. An implementation roadmap and operational model were generated that combined the best practices found in industry and academic theories that would help meet the objectives of the AMDC. / by Annabel Flores. / M.B.A. / 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, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 55-56). / This project addresses a corrosion quality problem at an automaker. The problem, hem flange corrosion, involves the appearance of red rust along edges of closure panels (doors, hoods, deck lids, etc) after three to four years in service. This project focuses on finding a solution for a particular new model. The project contains two parts: a technical treatment of hem flange corrosion and an organizational analysis. The technical discussion includes a root-cause analysis, failure analysis of past solution attempts, benefit/cost analysis of potential solutions, and technical recommendations. The organizational discussion examines why this automaker was challenged with implementing a solution. / by Jeremy C. Wallach. / S.M. / M.B.A.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical 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. 65-66). / Both color keyed and color specific liquid primers have been used successfully in automotive paint application, reducing the use of costly topcoat materials. Generally, color keyed primer is close in color to the topcoat and is applied to the exterior surfaces of the vehicle body. Color specific primer identically matches the topcoat material color, and can be used as a replacement for topcoat on interior surfaces. Application of color powder paint primer would provide for additional cost savings, more environment-friendly manufacturing, and higher customer satisfaction. Recent technology breakthroughs have led to the technical feasibility of applying multicolor powder paint with full reclaim and therefore 100% material utilization. The field feasibility of applying multicolor powder paint in an automotive manufacturing facility is being assessed and validated by GM. More specifically, GM has developed the GM Canister Powder Paint Delivery System to meet the challenges of color powder paint application. In anticipation of multicolor powder paint application, GM is completing its Manufacturing Systems Qualification (MSQ) Process for the Canister System. Due to the newness of the enabling technology, GM is investigating all aspects of materials, process designs, facilities, operations, and people, for the implementation of color keyed/color specific powder paint primer into new GM paint shops. Similar to GM's MSQ Process, qualification requirements in the pharmaceutical and medical device industry attest to the importance of validation in the implementation of new manufacturing technology. Beyond its technical purposes, validation can serve as a bridge between development and operation. During development, formal and relational contracts with / (cont.) suppliers should be established to provide incentives for the supplier to perform throughout validation and commissioning. Involving the plant in validation along with suppliers is one means of education and thus empowerment, a key phase of organizational change as described by Professor Shoji Shiba. Leadership can use several change management techniques to help prepare the plant organization for operation of the new manufacturing technology. / by Bevin Barberich. / M.B.A. / S.M.