Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2013. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 84-87). / This thesis is a comprehensive study that aggregates the key aspects of ethanol including its supply chain, government legislation that impacts the use of, and the inherent material characteristics of the fuel as well as its environmental impact. Based on existing research, this study suggests whether or not mandating biofuels in today's energy portfolio makes sense and if so, to what extent. The objective of this research was to compile and analyze the large body of existing working knowledge regarding ethanol and distill some key takeaways for actionable recommendations. The findings in this research may be useful to policy makers, and those unfamiliar with the industry and wanting to learn more about ethanol. The key takeaway is that ethanol does not provide a quick fix to the world's energy problems but when combined with improved energy conservation, continued research and development to improve ethanol's carbon footprint, it can provide some help to reducing the environmental impact along with other benefits such as energy independence and rural economic stimulation. / by Sarah L. Bruce. / M.Eng.in Logistics

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-92). / Within the semiconductor industry, the variability in both supply and demand is quite high; this uncertainty makes supply chain planning very difficult. We analyze the current tools and processes at a large semiconductor manufacturing company and then propose a framework for improvement based on hierarchical production planning. We present an appropriate decomposition for this specific planning problem and illustrate some limitations of traditional inventory models. New safety stock equations are developed for this planning problem based on a simple analysis using the basic ideas from probability theory. We also devise a new method to determine lead times that more accurately captures the actual lead time seen in the supply chain. Finally, an algorithm is developed to determine appropriate inventory levels and production allocation. These ideas, when used together, provide a powerful framework to properly manage supply chains in highly stochastic environments. / by Jeffrey D. Johnson. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M. in Engineering and Management)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2013. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 42-43). / Although the concepts of sustainable building have been widely accepted in the market, there are unavoidable challenges toward widespread acceptance and long-term practice. Crossing green building development, there is continually growing awareness in practices, green products, and high-performance technologies among building design, development and construction. The market has shown that there are concerns on lack of accurate and quantifiable information to analyze the economic impacts of high-performance buildings. It further implies that there are hurdles in the perception of cost, such as the high cost of construction and operation. These perceived high costs have become stumbling blocks to the acceptance of green building concepts. While dealing with complexity, emergent behavior and the requirements of many stakeholders, the cost factor directly impacts further development on green buildings, which will be required to demonstrate value-added flow between owners and users. There is a timely opportunity to evaluate the cost of construction and operation to determine how the strategy to reduce this cost will benefit the sustainable building industry in long run. Sustainable buildings meet market and building owners' (as well as builders') demands for new and renovated facilities, after consideration for less environmental impact. While realizing the environmental stewardship and conservation, green buildings need to be generated with an optimal balance of cost, in order to show environmental, societal, and human benefits through the function of the intended facility or infrastructure. Based on current market research and data, there's a consistent disconnect between capital costs and operating costs. Over past a few years, there has been a lot of discussion and analysis on the true costs of green buildings and proposals to reduce the high construction and operation costs in order to show returns on constructing an environmentally responsible, high-performing facility. The objectives of this thesis are to identify the strategies to reduce the construction and operation costs for building sustainably and convince the industry to rethink construction budgeting and financing. In order to provide quantification of cost, a comprehensive analysis will be done on the cost of construction and operation of green buildings. Key Questions: The proposed thesis will address the following major questions: " What kind of measurements are appropriate for the green building industry to capture the costs of sustainability? * What methodology can best be employed to monitor the long-term reduction of these costs? " What approach should be used to quantify the direct association between the cost impacts and green building development? * What are the commonalities and differences offered by these costing methodologies? " What kind of green building can offer the greatest return on investment? / by Zhiyong Wang. / S.M.in Engineering and Management

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-91). / This research provides an overview of the underlying dynamics, drivers, top players, supply chain structure and challenges facing the apparel industry. We present the case of Limited Brands Inc. and describe the positioning of the company within the apparel industry. We then address business processes critical to the success of the Victoria's Secret Business Unit of Limited Brands. This research draws extensively on interviews with company officials at Limited Brands that provided rich insight into a wide range of supply chain practices specific to the Victoria's Secret business. The success of Victoria's Secret can be attributed to a set of important supply chain activities, driven primarily by a collaborative intra-company effort. Insights gained from this research can also be leveraged to understand other industries such as consumer packaged goods, computers, and electronics industries which face similar supply chain issues. / by Sumit Kumar. / M.Eng.in Logistics

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2014. / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 229-240). / The aging of the population is an important global phenomenon that is bringing changes and challenges to various areas of society. Technology has been explored as one way to cope with the complexities and uncertainties that are emerging with this demographic change. However, the responses from the potential user segment have been far from enthusiastic, suggesting that older adults' adoption of technology is not simply a matter of performance and price, but a complex issue that is affected by multiple factors. This dissertation explores the topic of older adults' technology adoption and use with an integrated framework that includes the perceptions, behaviors, and decisions of both the users and the producers. First, an exhaustive set of individual, technical, and social factors are identified and defined from a literature review and from user interviews with descriptions on these factors' importance and roles in the adoption and use process. Second, the results from a large-scale national survey are presented with a discussion of the empirical validity of the factors, as well as their relative importance and associations at three main decision stages of adoption and use -- purchase, initial use, and continued use. Finally, this dissertation presents a set of three cases developed from multiple sources of evidence on existing technology-enabled solutions for aging-in-place. The integrated framework described in this dissertation suggests the importance of considering population aging as a complex issue, as well as a new opportunity, that requires user-centered thinking from various players and stakeholders. Drawing on multiple methods of quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis, the results underscore the importance and roles of different adoption factors during the design, development, and delivery of technology, as well as in older adults' decisions around adoption and use. This dissertation finds that the various requirements, expectations, and values of older adults are closely related and collectively affect their decisions and behaviors around technology. Finally, a set of implications for research and practice are presented around the need for the continuous involvement of older adults throughout design, development, and delivery of technologies for a changing population. / by Chaiwoo Lee. / Ph. D.

Thesis (M.Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 69-70). / Online auctions represent one of the most interesting developments in electronic commerce. On the one hand, it presents great opportunities - enabling businesses to reach large group of buyers, liquidate products at market-driven prices, and lower transaction costs. On the other hand, it makes sellers much more vulnerable because they have to compete with other vendors in a transparent and level trading environment. Therefore, it greatly undermines sellers' traditional source of competitive advantage based on channel power, brand reputation, and customer loyalty. Moreover, online auction puts tremendous pressure on product prices, which is likely to offset sellers' gain from increased reach and lower transaction costs. As a result, businesses must carefully evaluate the pros and cons of online auction before investing in it. The goal of our research is to develop a framework which companies can use to determine whether online auction is an appropriate strategy for them by analyzing their products. Our analysis focused on two dimensions of the product characteristics: commodity-specialty and tangible-intangible attributes. We want to examine what attributes appeal most to the bidders in a highly competitive auction environment and what auction formats are most effective for product with certain attributes. For this study, we conducted a laboratory experiment where we auctioned specific products whose attributes represent different scales along the commodity-specialty, tangible-intangible spectrum. Here is a summary of our findings: 1) In commodity market, the competitiveness of the auction format and high buyer sophistication put tremendous pressure on product price, cutting the sellers' already-razorthin profit margin. On the other hand, sellers of specialty products are more likely to leverage the market dynamics and benefit from the broad reach and flexible pricing. 2) In online auction, tangible attributes play a much more important role in bidders' determination of the product prices. Tangible attributes provide an easy measure for bidders to assess the value of the products. 3) As bidders become savvier about the bidding process, they tend to collude with each other to drive down the price collaboratively. The transparent trading environment provided by online auction enables bidder to explore and speculate on others' intention and use this information to adjust their own bidding strategy. As a result, the bids they submitted reflect more of their perception of how much other would pay for the product rather than their own valuation of it. 4) Different auction formats indeed have different impacts on the auction results. For example, some auction formats encourage bidders to reveal their true valuation of the product early in the bidding process and other foster speculation and collusion among bidders. By carefully designing their implementation strategy, sellers can leverage the difference of the auction formats and maximize their benefits. The structure of this paper follows a top-down approach. Chapter 1 presents an overview of the competitive landscape of business-to-business electronic commerce. It defines three emerging eMarketplace models - aggregator, auction, and exchange - and provides an in-depth analysis of their impacts on a company's supply chain strategy. Chapter 2 focused on the most popular of the three eMarketplace models - online auction. It examined the driving force behind the proliferation of business online auction, the variety of auction markets, and the economics of different auction formats. The second half of the paper concentrates on our research. Chapter 3 outlines our research questions and methodology. Chapter 4 layouts the experiment results and our analysis. Finally, Chapter 5 summarizes our findings and discusses their implications in the supply chain management. / by Wen Xiao. / M.Eng.

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2011. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 85-87). / Asia-Pacific countries have experienced a rapid rise in Internet usage in recent history. China, in particular, has seen 40% of its population (or 500M people) connect to the Internet in the past 10 years, and continues to experience an increase in its user base. This large user base, coupled with a rise in wealthy households and per capita spending, is driving a dramatic increase in e-Commerce retail, specifically in the luxury goods space. Consumption of luxury goods in China has reached $9.4B in 2010, second only to Japan in the world. As luxury purchase rates continue to increase in China, luxury fashion brands are investing many resources to understand the customer, develop the market, establish the supply chain, and deliver the products. Polo Ralph Lauren (PRL), in order to continue its growth in China, is expanding aggressively through license reacquisitions and retail store developments. Furthermore, to provide its existing customers with additional products and enhanced services, and to capture consumers who live in cities without access to PRL's brick and mortar stores, PRL has set its vision to develop an e- Commerce business in China. This thesis provides a fundamental understanding of PRL's current business operations and of current e-Commerce fulfillment models for luxury apparel brands in China. An assessment of gaps was also conducted between current fulfillment operations of PRL and those of other luxury brands and 3PLs operating in China, specifically on delivery lead-time, last mile delivery options, end-to-end customer service, and return logistics. From this research, we recommend general methods for luxury brands to manage and provide best in class fulfillment service. For PRL, we specifically recommend the company maintain ownership of all customer-facing activities to ensure quality. We also advise PRL to integrate all customer information from retail to e-Commerce, further strengthening its service offering and brand image. Furthermore, we recommend PRL to locate and outsource its initial DC in Shanghai and partner with FedEx and EMS for fulfillment. / by Benjamin R. Thomson and Hao Hu. / M.Eng.in Logistics

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 184-188). / In support of the Supply Chain 2020 Project at MIT, this thesis identifies current best practices in retail industry supply chains, with a specific focus on mass merchandising and Internet retailing. Using a survey of current literature for context and industry expert interviews, this thesis assesses the current state of the retail industry and analyzes case studies of Wal-Mart and Amazon.com to illustrate retail supply chain best practices. Topics covered in each case study include supply chain strategy and business strategy linkage, operating models, supply chain design, replenishment and distribution processes, and ongoing supply chain improvement initiatives. Wal-Mart and Amazon.com are found to have very different supply chains in terms of structure and processes, based on their different operating models. However, there are many supply chain themes that are common among the two companies. Both case study companies have supply chain strategies, designs, and processes that clearly support their business strategies. Additionally, these companies tailor processes to fit specific product and demand profiles, collaborate extensively with supply chain partners, invest significantly in information technology, focus on operational efficiency, and leverage scale to facilitate competitive advantage through supply chain management. Based on the common and unique aspects of Wal- Mart and Amazon.com's supply chains, we provide recommendations for the potential transferability of Wal-Mart and Amazon.com practices within the retail industry and to other industries. / by Colby Ronald Chiles and Marguarette Thi Dau. / M.Eng.in Logistics

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 70-73). / This thesis' fundamental research question is to evaluate the structure of the hydrogen production, distribution, and dispensing infrastructure under various scenarios and to discover if any trends become apparent after sensitivity analysis. After reviewing the literature regarding the production, distribution, and dispensing of hydrogen fuel, a hybrid product pathway and network flow model is created and solved. In the literature review, an extensive analysis is performed of the forthcoming findings of the National Academy of Engineering Board on Energy and Environmental Systems (BEES). Additional considerations from operations research literature and general supply chain theory are applied to the problem under consideration. The second section develops a general model for understanding hydrogen production, distribution, and dispensing systems based on the findings of the BEES committee. The second chapter also frames the analysis that the thesis will review using the model. In the problem formulation chapter, the details of the analytic model at examined at length and heuristics solution methods are proposed. Three heuristic methodologies are described and implemented. An in-depth discussion of the final model solution method is described. In the fourth chapter, the model uses the state of California as a test case for hydrogen consumption in order to generate preliminary results for the model The results of the MIP solutions for certain market penetration scenarios and the heuristic solutions for each scenario are shown and sensitivity analysis is performed. The final chapter summarizes the results of the model, compares the performance of heuristics, and indicates further areas for research, both in terms of developing strong lower bounds / (cont.) for the heuristics, better optimization techniques, and expanded models for consideration. / by Jon R. Pulido. / M.Eng.in Logistics

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 73). / Sterilization is an example of a procedure that has been outsourced by medical device companies. Sterilization is required for all medical devices and the process used is based on product type. As demand for medical devices increases, production is ramping up, and the need for additional sterilization capacity increases. The time required to build more sterilization capacity can be between six to nine months, and therefore companies are looking into their future production to estimate when will be the right time to start building more capacity. This thesis analyzes the change in sterilization capacity utilization using a simulation model. The model replicates the current production distribution based on data provided from the sterilization facility. / y Ron Arad. / M.Eng.in Logistics