Customer demand fulfillment is the business process within a company that determines how the customer demand is fulfilled. A rush order is the last minute customer order after the production plan of a company has been concluded. For these rush orders, appropriate and reasonable response is imperative as it could put strain on customer relationship and services. A good and positive response could help the company to build and retain its market share in today’s highly competitive markets. A model aims at decreasing the product inventory cost is proposed in this paper. In this model, the prioritized fulfillment sequence of rush customer demands can be searched in terms of the product inventory cost. The paper focuses on two main issues: the available-to-promise (ATP) based fulfillment ability and the prioritized fulfillment of customer demands. For ATP based fulfillment, a dynamic bill-of-material (BOM) is proposed to handle the complicated issues of BOM, BOM explosion and production capacity. By means of dynamic BOM, material availability as well as production capacity can be taken into consideration simultaneously and efficiently. Two methods, mathematical optimization and heuristic algorithm, are constructed and elaborated on in the second issue. The proposed model allows companies to prioritize customer rush orders in terms of product inventory cost. / Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)

In order to combat the greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector, battery-powered electric vehicles have risen as an alternative that offers a cleaner and more sustainable mode of transportation that reduces reliance on fossil fuels and decreases carbon footprints. The climate scenario goals set by the International Energy Agency - the Net Zero Emissions, Announced Pledges, and Stated Policies Scenarios - revolve around an increased and expeditious demand for electric vehicles, machines that are intrinsically intertwined with battery production. This study focused on the sustainability of the battery's positive electrode (cathode), a critical, material-intensive component. The three different types of cathodes – Layered, Spinel, and Polyanionic – were studied to determine the basics behind their performances. It then became evident that the key ingredients of a battery cathode are lithium, manganese, nickel, iron, and aluminium. These materials were quantified in terms of their production, reserves, and resource numbers. An analysis on the electric vehicle market as a function of the type of battery chemistries was performed to determine how much the best sold and produced EV models consumed in terms of the different materials and how material intensive they were. The future production demand of the ingredients was studied. For lithium, this involved running two polynomial regressions with a demand and production peak in 2050. For manganese and nickel, the compositions of a hypothetical cathode were iterated to match the climate scenario targets, and thus, determine which compositions would meet them. Throughout the investigation, several aspects were uncovered: the current dominant battery chemistry in the EV market is the iron-rich, polyanionic type. However, to compensate for the lower performance of LFP batteries, manufacturers increased cathode size, nullifying the lithium savings. Regarding lithium production, a polynomial growth with a linear decline post the 2050 peak would seamlessly meet the climate scenario goals without exhausting the planetary resources. Manganese proved more sustainable than nickel, although nickel-rich cathodes remain the preferred choice. Manganese-rich cathodes showed the best material efficiency. Significant challenges remain in achieving sustainable EV batteries. The supply chain is highly centralized, and there are limited alternatives to lithium-reliant chemistries. Bereft from economically feasible lithium production methods, the industry is struggling to diversify its technology whilst treading lightly on fragile supply chains. There is comfort in the fact that the availability of these materials is still profuse - but this prosperity may not last if the projected demand is not congruent with the current state of nickel reserves, and if policy and car manufacturers continue to ignore the inherent chemical and physical limitations of the cathode types they prefer. In conclusion, while progress has been made, ensuring the sustainability of EV batteries requires continued innovation and strategic resource management.

This thesis introduces company ABB Brno and its products. It describes the manufacturing process of a switchgear and it is focused at working procedures at particular points of the assembly line. The main part analyzes the root causes of the incompleteness of switchgears in the relation to the components availability. Time footprint was worked out. As a conclusion the proposal of changes in manufacturing process to improve the level of completeness are stated.