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, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 89-90). / As most companies in the consumer products space develop operational capabilities to produce and distribute high-quality low-cost products, leading firms in the industry continuously seek new ways to increase profitability and provide value to their retail partners and end consumers. While firms such as Procter & Gamble (P&G) have developed lean and flexible supply chains, this innovation has not had significant impact on the actual sale of product to the customer in individual stores. Analysis shows that large differences in the level of consumer demand for specific products exist across retail chains. However, current practices typically treat all stores across a chain the same. This thesis presents methods to target store-level marketing levers, including product mix, promotions, pricing, distribution and inventory management levels, based on shopper demographics and past purchasing behavior. Specifically, a framework to divide large retail chains into smaller "virtual chains" and subsequently develop targeted micro-marketing strategies for these virtual chains is presented. Research for this thesis was conducted during a six and a half month internship with P&G's Product Supply group at the Cosmetics division in Hunt Valley Maryland. The internship was affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Leaders for Manufacturing Program. / by John P. Sharkey. / 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 at MIT, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 137-139). / Competitive pressures in manufacturing industries have led to an increased utilization of outsourcing as a strategic alternative to vertical integration. This thesis develops a methodology to aid multi-business unit firms in formulating outsourcing strategies on the corporate or business group level. It offers frameworks for identifying non-core manufacturing capabilities and make versus buy decision making. In addition, it identifies critical organizational and communication linkages between levels of management and functional groups that are necessary precursors to developing a successful outsourcing strategy. Finally, it presents an analysis of the growing importance of the strategic sourcing function within the engineering firm, the informational inputs needed for the sourcing organization to adequately support activities across all business units, and investigates issues of measurement and performance within a cross-business unit support function. The research leading to the development of the described outsourcing methodology was conducted jointly between the MIT Leaders for Manufacturing Program and Honeywell International within the Honeywell Automation and Control Solutions Business Group. / by Ramy Abu-Khalil. / S.M. / M.B.A.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering; and, (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 54-55). / As companies grow and innovate, they offer an increasing number of products. Product proliferation must be managed through a product development process, which is supported by key competencies of the company in the form of platforms. Product and technology platforms have been essential to the success of innovative companies. By leveraging core abilities, companies are able to bring products to market faster and at a lower cost for quality. In this research I present the concept of a manufacturing process platform and a framework for identifying and institutionalizing the platform. I present a case study of a manufacturing group in Eastman Kodak Company which has performed analysis of manufacturing processes and is attempting to implement a manufacturing process platform. Research for this thesis was conducted during a six and a half month internship with Eastman Kodak Company's High Performance Imaging Systems Manufacturing group in Rochester, NY. The internship was affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Leaders for Manufacturing Program. / by Justin Ging. / 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 Mechanical Engineering; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-77). / Throughout the vehicle development process, automotive manufacturers must work to meet a variety of customer needs. One increasingly important attribute is vehicle exterior perceived quality, which is largely dependent on how well exterior parts fit together. Before vehicles are produced and sold to customers, manufacturers utilize several processes and tools to "tune in" vehicle exteriors. This thesis examines one manufacturer's approach to delivering vehicle exterior quality, including a recent change initiative to improve the tune in process. The overall vehicle development process is introduced, and then detail is provided for areas of the process that relate closely to vehicle exteriors. Two areas that are explored in depth are the manufacturer's tune in build strategy and a new exterior fitting fixture implementation. An assessment of build strategy is provided and a framework is proposed. The framework is based on functional build theory and Key Characteristic (KC) chains. Functional build is a process to ensure that the vehicle exterior meets specifications while allowing engineering teams to determine the best way to solve dimensional problems, which may or may not include forcing a component in the assembly to design intent. / (cont.) A KC chain analysis is one way to view how vehicle exterior requirements relate to each other and engineering organizational structure. Viewing build strategies with these two techniques illustrates how build decisions are impacted by organizational and technical complexity, as well as material rigidity. At an automotive manufacturer, several fitting fixtures are used during the tune in process. An initiative to implement a new fitting fixture is assessed. Both technical and organizational issues are addressed. The conclusion of this thesis is that several factors that are both organizational and technical must be considered in order to gain the benefit of the new fitting fixture. Some of the major factors include: build strategy alignment with the fixture, learning systems to support continuous improvement, and organizational leadership and ownership aligned to quickly solve problems. / by Paul T. Glomski. / 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, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 61). / This thesis addresses Six Sigma process improvements and the supplier management issues resulting from the shift to external suppliers in the aftermath of a fire. Originally, this thesis was to address a lean implementation in Raytheon's substrate fabrication area. It was intended to build on work done by Satish Krishnan, which focused on a lean implementation in a related area. However, a fire in Raytheon's El Segundo substrate area forced Raytheon to outsource substrate production and brought to the forefront a different set of challenging issues. The fire shut down production for 21 days, creating pressure to capture lost ground once operations resumed. The increased demand and burden on resources during the recovery uncovered inefficiencies in key processes. One of the areas that increased in importance following the fire was magnet assembly. The first half of this thesis (Chapter 3 through Chapter 6) applies Raytheon's Six Sigma framework to the magnet assembly process in an effort to reduce non-value added work and increase standardization and control. Six Sigma incorporates many of the principles of lean manufacturing, such as continuous improvement and the elimination of non-value added work. / (cont.) The first half of this thesis focuses on the Six Sigma framework because of Raytheon's strong commitment to the approach, rather than the larger set of issues in lean manufacturing. Typically, the vertical integration decision is one of the key strategic choices facing a firm. The fire crippled Raytheon's substrate fabrication area and changed this decision from a strategic one to a tactical one. Rebuilding the substrate capability in El Segundo would require close to a year. In the short term, Raytheon was forced to shift substrate production from El Segundo to external suppliers or alternate internal sites. The second half of this thesis (Chapter 7 and Chapter 8) addresses the issues associated with outsourcing a technically complex product. The initial substrate offload accelerated the timeframe for establishing suppliers and for dealing with concerns like intellectual property, coordination, dependency and the strategic consequences of outsourcing a key technology. This thesis attempts to address these implementation issues as well as the strategic implications of outsourcing substrates. / by Sarah Egan. / 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, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 75-76). / Deciding which activities to conduct in-house and which to outsource has become increasingly important due to its implications on a company's supply chain and overall business model. A number of factors can lead a company to outsource manufacturing processes. As a result of this outsourcing, the supply chain can become very complex and overwhelming to manage. This thesis will analyze this situation from the perspective of one manufacturer, American Axle and Manufacturing, Inc. (AAM). AAM's Metal Formed Products (MFP) Division currently has a number of challenges: rising steel prices, fixed labor costs and declining sales. All these factors have significantly impacted profitability, forcing senior management to take a comprehensive look at the division and consider developing a plan to improve divisional operations. As a part of this plan, MFP Division's senior management asked for a thorough look into all of the manufacturing processes performed by the division both internally and by outside suppliers. In addition to identifying the processes and suppliers, senior management sought to highlight opportunities for improving the process flow through the re-sourcing of manufacturing processes. This project develops a framework to analyze and evaluate these re-sourcing decisions. This framework employs a five-step approach and incorporates a number of diverse analytical tools. Process flow mapping provided a tool to visually highlight the best opportunities to resource. In addition to a visual representation, process flow mapping also provided the data to financially evaluate alternatives. Strategic and market factors were identified in order to target and prioritize re-sourcing efforts. / (cont.) This framework provides a structure for sourcing decisions that balances the financial and strategic concerns. The project concluded in a $2M investment to re-source heat treating to AAM facilities. / by Heath M. Holtz. / S.M. / M.B.A.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering; and, (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 94-99). / The Broad Institute is a world leader in genomic sequencing. The Institute gained prominence during the Human Genome Project and has continued to be the nation's leading public laboratory for genomic sequencing projects. The Broad Institute has done this by taking advantage of economies of scale, rapid process innovation, and new process implementation. Strong execution has made The Broad Institute the lowest cost and highest quality sequencing operation in the country. As biological science evolves, The Broad Institute will focus on low-volume, highly targeted areas of a genome rather than high-volume, full genome sequencing projects. In order for the Institute to maintain high-quality output at low cost, it must change its operations strategy from mass production to flexible, lean production. The operations organization has begun the lean production journey by hiring operations focused managers and initiating a Six Sigma program to utilize their employees to innovate and optimize processes. This effort has been supplemented with 5S (systematic organization) and information systems that improve communication between groups. / (cont.) This thesis will focus on engineering and management issues relating to The Broad Institute and its quest to maintain quality and cost leadership among genomic sequencing laboratories. Specifically, the thesis will focus on the following items; * Preventing organism sample swaps by implementing operations changes that minimize operator error and provide electronic sample tracking through the use of Datamatrix (two dimensional) barcode technology. * Minimizing inherent process variability by increasing reagent inventory turnover and eliminating the use of expired chemicals. * Increasing the flexibility of the production process to easily handle high-mix, low-volume projects, such as the Cancer Human Genome Project. / by David A. Penake. / M.B.A. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf [109]). / The tragic events of September 11th , 2001, served as a catalyst for drastic change in the airline industry which was already in a financial downturn. Both the airlines and the government began introducing changes to the various aspects of the travel experience. The most impactful changes have been in the area of security, where an entirely new government agency has been created to oversee security at airports. However, additional changes to the travel experience have come from the airlines. This research provides an overview and analysis of one such change that is sweeping the industry. Self-service check-in devices were first installed by major network airlines in 1995 when Continental Airlines introduced the ETICKET machine. Others have since developed their own self-service products, while Continental has transformed its original machine into the eService product line. These devices empower the traveling customer to perform their own check-in and get through the airport quicker. Additionally, self-service check-in devices represent a cost savings opportunity for the airlines through reduced headcount requirements and ticket distribution fees. While deployment has been rapid both at Continental and other airlines, the development of a process that merges the ticket agents with the new technology has been lacking. In 2002, Continental Airlines began a cross-functional effort to drastically re-engineer the selfservice process. Many of the traits of that process have been implemented to some extent throughout Continental's domestic airports. Through observations of the current self-service process, surveys of both ticket agents and customers, and an in-depth case study comparison of two airports, this research has identified numerous opportunities for improvement of the process. In addition, the research provides recommendations for the next phases of the re-engineering process based on the findings of the observations and surveys. Finally, areas for future research that build off of these findings are presented with the goal of improving the travel experience for the customers and reducing costs for the airlines. / by Jared Keith Miller. / S.M.

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. 52-53). / In the face of growing competition and the commoditization in the Tantalum Wire business, H.C. Starck must find a way to differentiate their wire products from competitors in order to survive in this market. This thesis studies the possibility of developing a new product into the market by launching a product development process, with the goal of gaining a competitive advantage and sustaining it, thus increasing profitability over time. For this purpose a decision support model was developed to analyze the economical and operational feasibility of a new product. All aspects of launching a new product development process in H.C. Starck Wire department were modeled to simulate uncertainties across the Tantalum supply-chain, and recommendations were drawn based on results. A number of goals were addressed in this study: First, a robust link was created between the scientific potential and the economical potential of a new wire development. Second, a recommended strategy was defined for H.C.Starck Wire department in order to differentiate their products in lieu of low cost competition. / by Michal Hovav. / 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, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 80). / Following the tragedies of 9/11 in the United States and the ensuing down years for the aerospace industry, there are now signs of a comeback. This increase in demand is causing stress on the operations of many aerospace companies, who reduced operations and cut costs during the slowdown. This thesis proposes a three-pronged approach to undertake when looking to increase the capacity of an operation. The first step is to start changing the mindset on the shop floor to value all production pieces. The second step is to utilize all the analytical tools (such as Statistical Process Control) available to reduce set-up time and improve the targeted improvement activities of the operation. The third step is to properly evaluate the costs of purchasing new equipment and comparing that with potential alternative technologies. The proper utilization of these steps requires a thorough understanding of the organization's culture and how these change initiatives impact the relevant stakeholders. Without this organizational understanding, the chance of successfully meeting the increased customer demand is reduced. A case study was performed using this methodology at the Turbine Module Center at Pratt and Whitney. / (cont.) A potential way to change the mindset of the operators on the floor was identified surrounding the qualifying of machines to run a given part. Then, by using a more rigorous SPC program, a significant amount of wasted capacity was identified and the potential gains were mapped out. Then assuming that the implementation of the previous two-steps did not yield enough of an improvement to cover the missed demand, two alternative technologies were evaluated to determine what kind of equipment to purchase. This three-pronged approach will ensure that the organization can meet their expected demand long into the future. / by Bret R. Awbrey. / S.M. / M.B.A.