Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 160-166). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.Phil.)--City University of Hong Kong, 2009. / "Submitted to Department of Manufacturing Engineering and Engineering Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 87-91)

Includes bibliographical references (p. 79-84).

Thesis (M.S. in Operations Research)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2003. / Thesis advisor(s): Moshe Kress, Robert Dell. Includes bibliographical references (p. 45-47). Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 160-166). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 275-286).

Thesis (M.S. in Modeling, Virtual Environments and Simulation and M.S. in Computer Science)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2003. / "This thesis is done in cooperation with the MOVES Institute"--Cover. Thesis advisor(s): Eugene Paulo, John Hiles. Includes bibliographical references (p. 49). Also available online.

Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery AB (SIT) is a company that produces and delivers medium sized industrial gas turbines to customers all over the world and is located in Finspång. The Service section of SIT handles the aftermarket of turbines with both planned and unplanned inspections/repairs. SIT-Service experience that their lead time to customers is too long and a yearly survey with customers confirmed this. Service strives for a higher customer service and since the company suspect that internal processes have safety time built into can time quickly build up. Service has different service lines depending on what kind of maintenance needed and if planned/unplanned. Different options in a combination with several departments involved in these big projects make the flow hard to visualize and makes it complex.This report has studied how SIT-Service can enable a lead time reduction from order to delivery where the flow for Parts was chosen to be mapped and analyzed for one of the service lines. This orientation of the study was partly based on directions from the company and partly delimitations by the writers of the report. Directions from the company were for example to investigate a standard scope and to visualize the flow by mapping it, all with a focus on lead time. Delimitations developed to exclude sales and transportations as well as to only investigate one turbine type and one service line. To be able to follow the flow was a decision made to investigate the flow for Parts.The study has mapped times and activities in the Parts flow from received purchase order (PO) from customer to when parts are ready to leave SIT Finspång. This mapping includes several departments and several transactions in the ERP-system, activities, tasks, queues and uncertainties. The mapping investigated how the lead time was built up by the system and one angle of the mapping was to investigate if the times in the system were consistent with the matching times in reality. To be able to suggest any changes in the Parts flow regarding lead time, the mapping was classified based on value-adding/non-value-adding, wastes, critical chain and bottlenecks. This was followed by a use of different principles in how to enable lead time reduction. These principles were: elimination, simplification, parallelization and a combination of critical chain and bottlenecks.The results and conclusions based on the two analysis parts have been divided into two parts where suggestions in the first one are believed to have a larger impact on the total lead time. This part consists of five big areas of time with several suggestions, from concrete to more general. One of the most important areas is that SIT needs to improve how the company uses the Planned delivery time; to standardize and to make sure that it is used in the same way by all involved which could eliminate unnecessary times built in. Another important area is that the Goods receiving process time could be reduced for a majority of material in the ERP-system since this differs today even if material is handled the same in reality. The second part consisting of 14 smaller areas of suggestions are believed to have a smaller impact on the total lead time but are still considered to be important to implement. All suggestions have an order of implementation which recommends what should be done first for SIT-Service. If the suggestions are implemented is it believed that SIT-Service can shorten the lead time in the Parts flow and also to get a more efficient organization.

published_or_final_version / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Supplier selection is an important problem in supply chain management (SCM), and has attracted the attention of many researchers. Most previous research on supplier selection is based on the assumption that a single product is required. For the few supplier selection models for multiple products, they handled the problem on a product-by-product manner. In such cases, the synergy effect between products which could impact the choice of cooperative suppliers is not taken into account. However, it is practical for the purchasing company to procure multiple products simultaneously and benefit from the synergy effect between products. It is necessary to incorporate the synergy effect between products in multi-product supplier selection. This thesis presents a multi-product supplier selection model incorporating the synergy effect between products. The model is composed of three sub-models, i.e., the synergy determination sub-model, the supplier pre-selection sub-model and the negotiation-based final selection sub- model. As the agent-based technology is a natural tool for modeling distributed systems, the proposed multi-product supplier selection model is realized as a multi-agent system (MAS) with agents representing the relevant parties and functions of the proposed model. Agents of the MAS are able to interact with each other through the respective agent interaction protocols defined specifically for the three sub-models. The synergy determination sub-model is to determine the synergy effect between products. The term complementarity is used to represent the synergy effect between products. The product complementarity measure criteria are formulated based on the activities of automobile manufacturers. Complementarity measure methods are then proposed. The product bundle determination algorithm is presented to generate preferred product bundles. The interaction of agents involving in the sub-model is governed by the synergy determination protocol. The supplier pre-selection sub-model is to shortlist the qualified and competitive suppliers for multiple products. The pre-selection criteria catering for the multi-product environment are formulated. Both the general characteristics and performances of suppliers, and the capabilities supporting multi-product transactions are included in the pre-selection criteria. The TOPSIS-based supplier pre-selection algorithm is established to evaluate suppliers on these criteria. The interaction of agents involving in the sub-model is governed by the pre-selection protocol. The negotiation-based final selection sub-model is to select the cooperative suppliers for multiple products. In order to cater for the multi-product environment, multiple bids are allowed in the negotiation model. The corresponding bid utility function and negotiation strategies are presented. The B&B-based winner determination algorithm is presented to determine the cooperative suppliers. The hybrid protocol of combinatorial procurement auction and multi-bilateral bargaining is established to govern the interaction of agents in the sub-model. A case study has been executed to demonstrate the feasibility, effectiveness and usefulness of the supplier selection model for multiple products with synergy effect. The results indicate that the proposed supplier selection model is able to select suppliers for multiple products simultaneously and incorporate the synergy effect between products. In addition, the agent interaction protocols and related algorithms used in the agent-based system supporting the multi-product supplier selection model are suitable and effective. / published_or_final_version / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy