Large pharmaceutical companies struggle to find innovative ways to reduce work-in- process inventory in their production facilities. In our research, we focus on the tradeoff between inventory and production capacity through investing in new facilities and equipment. This tradeoff will depend on the company’s objectives and what it is willing...
The craft brewing industry in New York State has grown rapidly over the past five years helped in part by New York State legislation called the Farm Brewery Act of 2012. The act imposes agricultural stipulations for breweries desiring to file for a Farm Brewing license. The hop industry will...
Manufacturers and retailers are increasingly interested in exploring different ways to optimize their fulfillment of e-Commerce orders. An approach that is often considered is drop-shipping, where the manufacturer takes on the responsibility of shipping directly to the consumer. Retailers are interested in this model as it shifts their inventory responsibility...
To be competitive, businesses must make supply network design decisions, but often with only limited information and under uncertain conditions. How can an organization understand trade-offs between supply network decisions, without relying on complex, black-box models that require extensive data collection and hidden assumptions? We apply approximation methods to estimate...
Order-picking is an integral operation in warehouses and distribution centers (DC), consuming considerable operating resources and expenses. Numerous studies have attempted to optimize the efficiency and reduce the cost of order-picking. In working with a partner company, this thesis evaluates a proposed mechanism for piece-picking that would achieve this end...
The oil and gas industry is very volatile; it is characterized by unpredictable cycles of sharp rises and plunges in oil prices. This cyclical nature presents a huge challenge for companies that are operating in the industry. Companies have to be able to ramp up their production quickly so that...
This thesis analyzes the impact on prices and capacity of trucking industry due to the introduction of ELD mandate. This mandate requires truck drivers to record their working hours in a specified electronic device instead of a pen and paper method. This thesis utilizes the change in average truck driver...
The company sponsoring our project is a leading chemical manufacturer, supplying a wide range of products on a global scale. One of the most interesting lines of business the company operates is to supply specialty chemicals in faraway places on few weeks’ notice. The nature of these supply chains is...
Multi-stop truckload has been gaining importance in recent years as part of a shift away from Less-than-truckload freight. In our research, we sought to understand how the price and carrier behavior vary as the number of stops increases. Rational economic theory says that these shipments will be more expensive, and...
The Hershey Company faces a risk of obsolescence across its supply chain as it follows the First In First Out (FIFO) technique at its manufacturing plant distribution center instead of distributing goods based on either the demand at each retailer’s end or the useable shelf life of the goods being...
What are the key store related parameters that drive sales for large retail chains? This question has become increasingly important to Lojas Americanas, the sponsor company. In the last few years, the company has expanded rapidly to cater to a larger group of consumers in a wide range of locations...
This study addresses a medical device company’s need to relicense its products for export after declaring a new legal manufacturer. New license applications are approved at an unknown date with increasing probability within a finite time horizon. Approval results in the instantaneous obsolescence, or “sudden- death,” of inventory bound for...
Retailers must coordinate inbound shipments from a large number of vendors. In order to manage capacity, retailers need to have a system to prioritize inbound loads with capacitated carriers. This practice creates a constraint when the number of loads exceeds the capacity of committed carriers due to seasonality and consumer...
The unpredictable demand pattern during promotions leads to lost sales incurred due to frequent stock-outs, affecting the revenue and the brand of both the manufacturer and the retailer. The research focuses on finding out the root-causes of stock-outs in retail stores. It uses the audit response data that informs us...
Supply chains are exposed to a variety of risks as they become more complex and geographically diverse. Disruptions due to these risks can be costly. Companies cannot hope to mitigate all of their supply chain risks. In order to focus risk management resources on locations in the supply chain with...
What is the appropriate raw material inventory strategy for a make-to-order manufacturing company? As companies grow in size and the business environment changes over time, many companies adapt their operating policies to remain competitive. However, some policies, such as raw material inventory policies, are left untouched as “legacies” of the...
As supply chains become more global and complex, it increases the importance of end-to-end visibility into the material, information, and financial flows of a firm. This work covers various aspects of supply chain visibility such as current status, its benefits, and the benefit-enabling mechanisms, traced through multiple stages of research...
Recent advances in technological capability and economics have opened up a new world of capability known as the Internet of Things (IoT). The Internet of Things is the concept that all machines can be connected to the internet, and be remotely monitored through an infrastructure of interconnected software and hardware...
The choice of the location and number of warehouses is a strategic-level decision that can have a long- lasting impact on a firm’s performance. Warehouse locations and their capacities determine how products flow within a firm’s supply chain, which directly influences a firm’s performance in terms of cost and service...
Unilever, a large multi-national Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) company, uses water as an essential ingredient in its products and as a critical component in its manufacturing processes. In many instances, the price of water does not reflect market dynamics insofar as water is cheaper where there is low availability and...
Product tanker shipping companies in the spot market face severe volatility in demand and in price. We explore shipping companies' two problems: evaluating supply and demand of the market and assigning cargoes in order to maximize profitability. By approximating the market as a queueing system, we obtain utilization ratios, which...
The electronic newsletter of the MIT Global SCALE Network Issue #61 THE LEADING EDGE Subscribe to Frontiers Using Logistics to Cut Food Waste in Colombia ABACO, a national food bank in Colombia, and the Center for Latin-American Logistics Innovation, are collaborating on a project to streamline the distribution of donated...
El boletín electrónico de la MIT Global SCALE Network Issue #61 ASPECTOS DE VANGUARDIA Subscribirse a Frontiers La logística consigue reducir el volumen de desperdicios de alimentos en Colombia ABACO, un banco de alimentos de Colombia, y el Centro Latinoamericano de Innovación en Logística están colaborando en un proyecto con...
There is widespread poverty in Colombia yet the country discards 10 million tons of food a year according to estimates released by the government this March. ABACO, a national network of food banks that serves the needy, and the Center for Latin-American Logistics Innovation (CLI), have teamed up to reduce...
Aunque la pobreza en Colombia es generalizada, el país desecha 10 millones de toneladas de comida al año según las estimaciones que el gobierno publicó el pasado mes de marzo. ABACO, una red nacional de bancos de alimentos que presta servicios a los más necesitados, y el Centro Latinoamericano de...
