Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, September 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 64-68). / This work presents a look at real-life production-floor scheduling, comparing and contrasting it to both normative OR theory and Cognitive Psychology theory. Relevant literature in OR, scheduling and psychology is reviewed, and gaps in theory are pointed out, calling for observation of real-life scheduling and for modeling of the cognitive processes underlying such activities. While normative theory and cognitive psychology theory suggest certain behaviors should be observed, a case study conducted with a large manufacturing company reveals real-life scheduling to be different from behavior expected by OR as well as by cognitive psychology. Future research is suggested, which may enable better modeling of human schedulers. / by Yishai Boasson. / S.M.

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-97). / The cost of healthcare has been increasing over the past several years. From 1997 to 2002, the average cost for hospital stays increased 24 percent. The increase in healthcare cost can be explained by malpractice law suits and also by the increase in the cost of medical supplies (26 percent increase from 2000 to 2002). Though the Automated Point of Use (APU) technology and the Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) are helping hospitals reduce supply chain costs, this research seeks to understand whether the inventory policy exists with the APU-VMI model is optimal. To achieve an understanding of the behavior under the APU-VMI model, this research seeks to investigate the inventory cost as well as the average order quantity and the deviation of the order quantity, and the replenishment frequency for before and after the introduction of the APU-VMI model. Through this, this research seeks to recommend the optimal inventory policies that hospitals should couple with the APU-VMI model. This combination should enable hospitals to reduce supply costs, and increase the returns on the investment made in implementing the APU-VMI model. / by Paul Jenq-Haw Jan. / M.Eng.in Logistics

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2014. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references. / Infrastructure systems are large physical networks of interrelated components which produce and distribute resources to meet societal needs. Meeting future sustainability objectives may require more complex systems with stronger integration across sectors and improved collaboration among constituent organizations. This dissertation introduces and demonstrates a method of interoperable simulation gaining to combine elements from concurrent engineering, wargaming, and serious gaming to support strategic design activities. First, a controlled human subjects experiment quantifies the relative impacts of technical and social sources of complexity using a simple surrogate design task, finding collaboration with communication barriers greatly increases the time and cost of design. Next, a modeling framework identifies common graph-theoretic structures and formal behavior definitions believed to be generalizable to all infrastructure systems. An interoperability interface defines interactions between system models to eiable resource exchanges. Next, the High Level Architecture (HLA) standard is applied to the modeling framework to enable distributed, time-synchronized simulation with deceitralized authority over constituent system models. A federation object model and agreement define data structures and processes to participate in a federated simulation execution. A prototype application case implements the modeling framework and simulation architecture using the context of Saudi Arabia. Infrastructure system models are developed for agriculture, water, petroleum, and electricity sectors. A baseline scenario develops system and element instantiations using historical estimates of resource flows and fictional costs. A software implementation provides a graphical user interface to modify design scenarios and visualize outcomes. Finally, a game formulation uses the prototype model as the basis of a simulation game with individual and collective objectives among water, energy, and agriculture ministry roles. Players collaboratively propose new infrastructure projects over a planning horizon to maximize objectives within time and budgetary constraints. A second controlled human subjects experiment studies the effect of three tool variants of outcome design quality, finding the number of data exchanges is positively correlated with outcome quality and am integrated simulation variant using the HLA results in more data exchanges compared to am asynchronous file-based variant. / by Paul Thomas Grogan. / Ph. D.

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 63-64). / This thesis investigates the application of Dynamic Pricing strategies at a manufacturer of continuous replenishment perishable goods. I begin with a discussion of Dynamic Pricing models, and select a mixed integer programming formulation as most applicable to the available systems and data of the target company. Cost formulations are built through a detailed analysis of current cost allocations within the company and actual costs when available. Revenue and price elasticity models are built from existing formulations. The continuous functions are then discretized through piece-wise approximations and input into a mixed integer program using production and pricing as the decision variables. The results were not entirely conclusive as sensitivity around the base values, particularly the price elasticity value, can create very different price path solutions. Greater stability is achieved through tightening the price ranges, but the suggested policy of always charging the maximum allowable price is not practical within the company's existing policies. For actual implementation, a much more thorough understanding of the price elasticity mechanism would be required. / by William M. Driegert. / M.Eng.in Logistics

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 454-472). / During the past two decades, Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) have provided transportation organizations with increasingly advanced tools both to operate and manage systems in real-time. At the same time, federal legislation has been tightening the linkages between state and local transportation investments and metropolitan air quality goals. In this context, ITS seems to represent a case of the potential synergies - or so-called "win-win" outcomes - that could be realized for the dual policy goals of air quality and mobility. If the various public sector organizations responsible for air quality and transportation could cooperate in deploying, assessing and further adapting these new technologies to take advantage of these synergies, they could achieve a "sustainable use" of ITS. However, looking beyond ITS and air quality, these issues point to broader questions of how to appropriately manage technology and its impacts on society, specifically those technologies deployed by the public sector. In particular, how does the public sector innovate and deploy technologies in ways that maximize the benefits, and minimize or avoid the negative impacts? In order to examine this phenomenon, this thesis takes the example of ITS and air quality to develop and test a broader framework of Integrated Innovation, Deployment and Adaptation of Public Technologies (IIDAPT). / (cont.) In this thesis, we define and articulate a framework for IIDAPT, and identify testable conditions that make IIDAPT either more or less likely to occur. We identify seven conditions - based in the literature of political science, organizational theory, and public administration - that should, in theory, influence the ability of public agencies to achieve synergies for multiple policy goals through technology deployment. Having developed a theoretical framework for the conditions that influence IIDAPT, we then test those conditions using five U.S. cities - Los Angeles, Houston, Boston, Orlando, and Tulsa - as case studies in ITS and air quality. We then extend the framework to a non-US case, Mexico City, in order to further test the IIDAPT framework and to identify possible changes at the federal and local level to better align ITS deployments with both mobility and air quality goals in Mexico City. This research explains some interesting outcomes in terms of failures by public sector agencies to take advantage of new, lower cost ITS technologies that can provide multiple benefits for both mobility and air quality. We find that "cheap" solutions, such as ITS rather than conventional infrastructure, are not always in an agency's interests, as defined by the agency. / (cont.) Specifically, we found that lower-cost innovations may compete with an agency's or elected official's priorities for certain categories of investment, by undermining the ability to build up the case for that investment. The overarching conclusion, is that the possibilities for synergies (or "win-win" outcomes) must be defined, not according to the stated policy objectives or mission of the public sector agencies, but according to the underlying interests and agendas of agencies, which may, or may not align with the public interest. We also found that new information on the impacts of new ITS technologies on air quality does not generally lead to adaptation in the application of those technologies either to reduce negative impacts or to provide additional benefits for air quality. Even where evaluations of air quality impacts were required, those assessments were not well integrated into the process of technology deployment and later adaptation in the use of those technologies. Indeed, new information that can change the perception of possible mutual benefits is not always welcomed by agencies, and assessment methodologies will tend to reflect existing agency preferences. However, there were reasons for optimism. / (cont.) We found that in response to an increasingly "severe" air quality problem (as defined by federal regulations), local agencies are in fact experimenting with the use of ITS to achieve air quality benefits as well as mobility benefits. Furthermore, by creating the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) program, a dedicated federal funding source for non-traditional transportation investments (such as ITS) with air quality benefits, agencies were provided with the resources and additional motivation to seek out and deploy ITS technologies with air quality benefits. To conclude this work, we highlight possible areas of future theory development for IIDAPT, and point to additional technology and policy domains where the IIDAPT framework can be applied and tested. / by Rebecca Susanne Dodder. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2011. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 165-167). / Despite a rich legacy of impressive technological accomplishments (e.g., project Apollo, the Hubble Space Telescope) in recent years, the ability of government space agencies to deliver on their promises has increasingly been called into question. Although multiple acquisition systems and organizational structures have been tried, there remains a fundamental lack of understanding of how new technology development can, and should, be encouraged in this unique market structure and product context. This thesis seeks to address that gap by developing a more nuanced, and empirically grounded, explanation. R&D management practices typically conceptualize complex product innovation as a Stage-Gate process whereby novel concepts are matured through a succession of development stages and progressively winnowed down at each sequential gate. This view implicitly assumes that maturity is a monotonically increasing function of the technology, and that partially matured technologies can be restored from the "shelf' for future maturation, baring obsolescence. However, based on evidence from six detailed process histories of instances of innovation in NASA's science directorate - including more than 100 hours of interviews, 150 archival documents and 2 months of informal observations - this thesis demonstrates how, in practice, the pathways taken by new capabilities do not respect these assumptions, with important implications. For example: e Rather than being a monotonically increasing function in time, particular innovations draw simultaneously from funding mechanisms targeted at different Technology Readiness Level (TRL) ranges, and loop back to win "early stage" grants decades into their development when system level progress is stymied. As a result, increases to early stage R&D funding may not reach the targeted concepts. * Rather than being a purposeful management decision, getting shelved is something that happens to innovation teams due to the lack of co-timing of technical breakthroughs and mission opportunities. As a result, maintaining a shelved capability is as much a matter of keeping the team together as it is a question of technical obsolescence. The thesis argues that the observed dynamics can be better explained by four epochs of persistent, stable, and identifiable behavior, punctuated by transition inducing shocks. Acting individually, or in combination, these shocks can induce transitions from any one epoch to another. This new Epoch-Shock formulation enables a rethinking of the policy problem. Where the Stage-Gate model leads to an emphasis on centralized flow control, the Epoch-Shock model acknowledges the decentralized, probabilistic nature of key interactions and highlights which aspects may be influenced. These findings are considered both as NASA-specific recommendations, and more generally in terms of their implications for complex product innovation in a monopsony market. / by Zoe Szajnfarber. / Ph.D.

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2013. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 63-65). / Since the year 2000, at least 300 disasters occurred annually, catching more than 100 million people unprepared and in need of international assistance every year. The United Nations operates five humanitarian response depots (UNHRDs), stocked with over 1,000 types of humanitarian relief items. In the event of an emergency, the UNHRDs deploy the pre-positioned stocks to meet the initial demand of those people affected. Our thesis evaluates the response capacity of the UNHRDs to a single potential disaster: what percentage of total affected people can be served and in what time period. Developed from a stochastic linear programming model, this two-part index assumes that the depots operate as a network, lead times are proportional to distances from depots, and stockpiles are optimized individually for each relief item. Given a specific level of initial inventory for each item, the model also provides insight into how to distribute relief items throughout the five depots to minimize the expected delivery time. Based on a marginal benefit analysis, each unit of inventory is allocated to a depot to minimize the total expected delivery times to disasters. We describe how the UNHRDs and other humanitarian relief organizations can strategically pre-position limited emergency relief resources to maximize their capacity to respond to disasters. / by Kathryn K. Nishimura and Jian Wang. / M.Eng.in Logistics

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-91). / New or innovative products are growing in importance both in numbers and revenues, putting an extra stress on most current supply chains - defined conceptually as a buyer with a network of suppliers - as those were originally designed for efficiency purposes and existing products. While new products due to their characteristics, such as short life cycle, demand variability, and high investment risk, require responsive, flexible, adaptable supply chains and relevant practices. Those practices need to be properly tailored for specific different types of new products, perceived as a continuum of newness and change. This thesis examines supply chain management and supplier management practices for new products across different industries. This study has been conducted within the MIT Supply Chain 2020 Initiative using the academic and business literature research and an online survey as the methodology, and new product analytical framework as the study deliverable. / (cont.) The results of this study demonstrate that though there is a pronounced tendency to use suppliers more extensively to improve new product performance and general competitiveness, companies approach the supplier new product involvement very differently - depending on the type of new product in question and the specific mix of its key activity categories, which were identified in this study and corresponding framework as Flexibility, Control, Technology and Cost Focus. / by Herman Alex Kurapov. / M.Eng.in Logistics

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2007. / "June 2007." / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 63). / This thesis examines the feasibility of commodity-like forward and futures markets in non-commodity consumer goods. Benefits of information gleaned from the sale of products for future delivery are examined, as well as the market for wine futures, which serves as an example of a non-commodity futures market. Analysis is conducted by controlled experiments in a system dynamics model that simulates the bullwhip effect. / by Jeffrey Wayne Kight. / M.Eng.in Logistics

Thesis (Ph. D. in Engineering Systems: Technology, Management, and Policy)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2013. / 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 (p. 183-186). / Light-duty vehicles account for 43% of petroleum consumption and 23% of green- house gas emissions in the United States. Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards are the primary policy tool addressing petroleum consumption in the U.S., and are set to tighten substantially through 2025. In this dissertation, I address several interconnected questions on the technical, policy, and market aspects of fuel consumption reduction. I begin by quantifying historic improvements in fuel eciency technologies since the 1970s. First, I develop a linear regression model of acceleration performance conditional on power, weight, powertrain, and body characteristics, showing that vehicles today accelerate 20-30% faster than vehicles with similar specifications in the 1970s. Second, I nd that growing use of alternative materials and a switch to more weight-ecient vehicle architectures since 1975 have cut the weight of today's new cars by approximately 790 kg (46%). Integrating these results with model-level specification data, I estimate that the average fuel economy of new cars could have tripled from 1975{2009, if not for changes in performance, size, and features over this period. The pace of improvements was not uniform, averaging 5% annually from 1975{1990, but only 2% annually since then. I conclude that the 2025 standards can be met through improvements in eciency technology, if we can return to 1980s rates of improvement, and growth in acceleration performance and feature content is curtailed. I next test the hypotheses that higher fuel prices and more stringent CAFE standards cause automotive rms to deploy eciency technologies more rapidly. I nd some evidence that higher fuel prices cause more rapid changes in technology, but little to no evidence that tighter CAFE standards increase rates of technology change. I conclude that standards alone, without continued high gasoline prices, may not drive technology improvements at rates needed to meet the 2025 CAFE standards. Finally, I discuss the political economy of state and federal fuel economy standards. I develop a simple model of automotive manufacturers' responses to alternative systems of fuel economy regulation, using it to demonstrate the importance of several factors determining industry support for nationwide fuel economy regulations. / by Donald Warren MacKenzie. / Ph.D.in Engineering Systems: Technology, Management, and Policy