Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 91-95). / Perishability and stock-outs are two sources of inventory inefficiency in the Washington State tree fruit industry. This thesis measures the size of these inefficiencies in terms of dollars per box, and describes five solutions, four qualitative and one quantitative, that seek to address them. To establish the magnitude of the inefficiencies, I regress various fruit characteristics on a set of sales data, thereby ascertaining the relationship between a fruit's price and its age. I find that the industry loses 5% to 12% of potential revenue due to perishability and propose four qualitative policies designed to reduce these losses. Next, I develop an operational management tool in the form of a mixed-integer optimization model which can be used to make optimal sourcing decisions during stock-out events. I find that the potential savings from improved sourcing decisions are between $0.01 and 0.02 per box. These results confirm that the costs and foregone revenue associated with inventory management are significant and merit the tree fruit industry's attention. / by Jame Sterling Foreman. / M.Eng.in Logistics
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MIT/oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/53050 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Foreman, James Sterling |
| Contributors | Chris Caplice., Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering Systems Division., Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering Systems Division. |
| Publisher | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Source Sets | M.I.T. Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 105 leaves, application/pdf |
| Rights | M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission., http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 |
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