Operations and Supply Chain Management Commons^™

Optimizing Warranty Policies For Remanufactured Products: When Should They Be Longer, Shorter, Or Identical To New Product Warranties?, Kunpeng Li, Jun-Yeon Lee

Faculty Publications

Manufacturers adopt different warranty strategies for remanufactured products, offering shorter, identical, or longer warranty periods compared to new products. However, prior research has only focused on manufacturers offering either shorter or identical warranties. In addition, the existing literature has not captured the diminishing returns of warranties, i.e., as the warranty coverage increases, its incremental benefits begin to decrease but the costs continue to increase. To address these gaps, we develop an optimization model that jointly considers pricing and warranty decisions while accounting for warranty’s diminishing effect on consumer’s willingness to pay for remanufactured products. We show that all three observed …

Distribution Comparisons Of Eac Cost Growth For Aircraft Work Breakdown Structure Elements, Kyle P. Marquis, Edward D. White, Brandon M. Lucas, Robert D. Fass, Jonathan D. Ritschel, Shawn M. Valentine

Faculty Publications

This article analyzes and investigates the distribution of cost growth of the Estimate at Completion (EAC) for the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) elements of approximately 60 historical United States Acquisition Category I Research, Development, Test and Evaluation aircraft programs. Using the method of maximum likelihood in conjunction with the Akaike Information Criterion, the authors suggest that both the lognormal and Weibull distributions provide relatively good fit to EAC cost growth, with the lognormal slightly edging out the Weibull. As a summarized finding, the authors present their empirical results for the mean, coefficient of variation (CV), the 15th and 85th percentiles …

The Boris Experience: Evaluating Omnichannel Returns And Repurchase Intention, Jianliang Hao, Robert G. Richey Jr., Tyler R. Morgan, Ian M. Slazinik

Faculty Publications

Researchers have examined the influence of the factors on reducing return rates in retailing over the years. However, the returns experience is often an overlooked way to drive customer engagement and repeat sales in the now ubiquitous omnichannel setting. The focus on returns prevention in existing research overshadows management’s need to understand better the comprehensive mechanics linking the customer in-store return experience with their repurchase actions. Recognizing the need to bridge different stages of the returns management process, this research aims to explore the facilitators and barriers of in-store return activities.

Transportation Service Level Impact On Aircraft Availability, Vincent Mclean, Adam D. Reiman

Faculty Publications

Purpose — Aircraft fail to meet mission capable rate goals due to a lack of supply of aircraft parts in inventory where the aircraft breaks. This triggers an order at the repair location. To maximize mission capable rate, the time from order to delivery needs to be minimized. The purpose of this research is to examine the case of three airfields for the order to delivery time of mission critical aircraft parts for a specific aircraft type. Design/methodology/approach — This research captured data from three information systems to assess the order fulfillment process. The data were analyzed to determine the …

Supply Chain Resilience: How Autonomous Rovers Empirically Provide Relief To Constrained Flight Line Maintenance Activities, Mary A. Stanton, Jason Anderson, John M. Dickens, Lance Champagne

Faculty Publications

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to explore the utility of autonomous transport across two independent airframe maintenance operations at a single location. Design/methodology/approach – This study leveraged discrete event simulation that encompassed real-world conditions on a United States Air Force flight line. Though the Theory of Constraints (TOC) lens, a high-demand, human-controlled delivery asset is analyzed and the impact of introducing an autonomous rover delivery vehicle is assessed. The authors’ simulations explored varying numbers and networks of rovers as alternative sources of delivery and evaluated these resources’ impact against current flight line operations. Findings – This research …

Scope For Pair-Wise Factor Substitution Strategies In Us Rural Transit Operations When Factor Prices Change, Gregory G. Lubiani, Albert A. Okunade

Faculty Publications

Rural transit providers face unique challenges beyond those of their urban counterparts, including worse road conditions, access to trained labor, tighter budget constraints, and higher miles per rider. To date, transportation economics and policy research is scarce for this essential service in rural geographies due to data paucity. Employing the Generalized Translog Cost-minimization model, the core innovation in this paper is presenting the first illustration of the cost-minimization strategies available to transit providers when faced with the constraints of sparsely populated geographic settings. Using a rich dataset of 42 U.S. rural transportation providers across 17 years, we estimate the operational …

Developing A Resilient, Robust And Efficient Supply Network In Africa, Jade F. Preston, Bruce A. Cox, Paul P. Rebeiz, Timothy W. Breitbach

Faculty Publications

Purpose — Supply chains need to balance competing objectives; in addition to efficiency, supply chains need to be resilient to adversarial and environmental interference and robust to uncertainties in long-term demand. Significant research has been conducted designing efficient supply chains and recent research has focused on resilient supply chain design. However, the integration of resilient and robust supply chain design is less well studied. The purpose of the paper is to include resilience and robustness into supply chain design. Design/methodology/approach — The paper develops a method to include resilience and robustness into supply chain design. Using the region of West …

Sortie-Based Aircraft Component Demand Rate To Predict Requirements, Thomas R. O'Neal, John M. Dickens, Lance Champaign, Aaron V. Glassburner, Jason R. Anderson, Timothy W. Breitbach

Faculty Publications

Purpose — Forecasting techniques improve supply chain resilience by ensuring that the correct parts are available when required. In addition, accurate forecasts conserve precious resources and money by avoiding new start contracts to produce unforeseen part requests, reducing labor intensive cannibalization actions and ensuring consistent transportation modality streams where changes incur cost. This study explores the effectiveness of the United States Air Force’s current flying hour-based demand forecast by comparing it with a sortie-based demand forecast to predict future spare part needs. Design/methodology/approach — This study employs a correlation analysis to show that demand for reparable parts on certain aircraft …

Quantifying The Effects Of Aircraft Engine Upgrades On Operating And Support Costs, Bradford A. Myers, Edward D. White, Jonathan D. Ritschel, R. David Fass

Faculty Publications

For fixed wing aircraft within the U.S. Air Force, Operating and Support (O&S) costs encompass a large portion of total life cycle costs. O&S costs include fuel, maintenance, and engine upgrades. To the authors’ knowledge, no study to date has attempted to empirically quantify the realized effects of new aircraft engines on sustainment costs. Utilizing the Air Force Total Ownership Cost database, they focused on new engines appearing on the C-5s, C-130s, and C-135s. Although narrow in scope, results suggest newer engines have lower fuel costs. Maintenance costs for newer engines were not consistently higher or lower than the engines …

Order Fulfillment Errors And Military Aircraft Readiness, Michael Weber, Daniel Steeneck, William Cunningham

Faculty Publications

This paper aims to measure the effect of supply discrepancy reports (SDRs) on military aircraft readiness metrics, including aircraft availability, not mission capable supply (NMCS) hours, cannibalizations and mission-impaired capability awaiting parts (MICAP) hours.

Monthly SDR, NMCS, aircraft cannibalizations and MICAP data from 2009 to 2018 are analyzed using linear regression and independent samples t-tests to examine whether discrepant shipments negatively impact aircraft readiness.

Research In Defense Logistics: Where Are We And Where Are We Going?, George A. Zsidisin, Amanda Bresler, Benjamin T. Hazen, Keith F. Schneider, Taylor H. Wilkerson

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this paper is to provide insight on high-interest areas of research in defense-related logistics and supply chain management and opportunities for advancing theory and practice in this domain.

Multi-Study Analysis Of Learning Culture, Human Capital And Operational Performance In Supply Chain Management: The Moderating Role Of Workforce Level, Robert E. Overstreet, Joseph B. Skipper, Joseph R. Huscroft Jr., Matt J. Cherry, Andrew L. Cooper

Faculty Publications

Purpose — The purpose of this study is to empirically evaluate the relationship between learning culture, workforce level, human capital and operational performance in two diverse supply chain populations, aircraft maintenance and logistics readiness. Design/methodology/approach — Drawing upon competence-based view of the firm and human capital theory, this paper analyzes data from two studies. Findings — The results provide support for the hypothesized model. Workforce level moderates the relationship between learning culture and human capital, and human capital partially mediates the relationship between learning culture and operational performance. Research limitations/implications — The findings have implications for behavioral supply chain management …

Keep 'Em Fighting: Chris-Craft's Contribution To Wwii, Geoffrey D. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

On June 6, 1944, Allied forces clamored over the sides of large troop ships into 4126 landing craft, many of those LCVPs (Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel), and prepared to storm several beaches of northern France in Operation Overlord, better known as D-Day. Preparation for this day started in the early 1942 as companies throughout the United States converted their factories from peacetime to wartime production. In Michigan, all three Chris-Craft Corporation plants quickly converted from pleasure boat building to building boats for the war effort full time. Together, the three plants would become part of the America’s arsenal of democracy …

Review Of Quantitative Methods For Supply Chain Resilience Analysis, Seyedmohsen Hosseini, Dmitry Ivanov, Alexandre Dolgui

Faculty Publications

Supply chain resilience (SCR) manifests when the network is capable to withstand, adapt, and recover from disruptions to meet customer demand and ensure performance. This paper conceptualizes and comprehensively presents a systematic review of the recent literature on quantitative modeling the SCR while distinctively pertaining it to the original concept of resilience capacity. Decision-makers and researchers can benefit from our survey since it introduces a structured analysis and recommendations as to which quantitative methods can be used at different levels of capacity resilience. Finally, the gaps and limitations of existing SCR literature are identified and future research opportunities are suggested.

From Trash To Treasure: The Impact Of Consumer Perception Of Bio-Waste Products In Closed-Loop Supply Chains, Ivan Russo, Ilenia Confente, Daniele Scarpi, Benjamin T. Hazen

Faculty Publications

Increasing efforts are made to convert waste into new materials for replacing “traditional” ones. In particular urban bio-waste represents a primary source of concern for both government and society. A new type of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) have been very recently developed to convert food waste into a biodegradable multifunctional raw material to help solving the plastic waste problem. However, little is known about consumers' reactions to products made from PHA. Hence this study aims at understanding consumers' intentions to purchase, pay for, and switch to those bio-based products. Both multivariate analyses of variance and mediation analyses are run, addressing product involvement, …

Orchids Paper Company 2014-2015, John K. Masters, Pamela P. Rogers

Faculty Publications

This case captures Orchids Paper Company at a time of significant change internally and in its environment. It presents opportunities to examine the concept of fit between Strategy, Environment, and Resources to maximize profit potential. The nature of Orchids’ products and industry facilitate the case’s accessibility, since Orchids operates in an industry which is fairly simple to understand (paper manufacturing). The case is intended for use in business policy and strategy classes at the undergraduate or MBA level, but might be used in operations, supply chain, finance, accounting or marketing classes by focusing on specific questions facing the firm.

The Quest For Carbon-Neutral Industrial Operations: Renewable Power Purchase Versus Distributed Generation, Tongdan Jin, Tianqin Shi, Taeho Park

Faculty Publications

Integrating renewable energy into the manufacturing facility is the ultimate key to realising carbon-neutral operations. Although many firms have taken various initiatives to reduce the carbon footprint of their facilities, there are few quantitative studies focused on cost analysis and supply reliability of integrating intermittent wind and solar power. This paper aims to fill this gap by addressing the following question: shall we adopt power purchase agreement (PPA) or onsite renewable generation to realise the eco-economic benefits? We tackle this complex decision-making problem by considering two regulatory options: government carbon incentives and utility pricing policy. A stochastic programming model is …

Supply Chain Coordination With Two-Part Tariffs Under Information Asymmetry, Chongqi Wu, Kunpeng Lu, Tianqin Shi

Faculty Publications

Supply chain coordination literature indicates that two-part tariff contracts cannot coordinate a supply chain with a supplier and a retailer under information asymmetry, but can coordinate the channel under full information, while leaving the retailer zero profit. Motivated by the practice of Costco Business Centres, we incorporate customer heterogeneity, near-saturated retail market and asymmetric information into a stylised model. The retailer has the knowledge of customer heterogeneity while the supplier does not. The supplier, on the other hand, designs a menu of two-part tariffs for the retailer to choose from. We have found that two-part tariffs can coordinate the supply …

An Advanced Tabu Search Approach To The Dynamic Airlift Loading Problem, August G. Roesener, J. Wesley Barnes

Faculty Publications

This research effort presents a tabu search algorithm to solve the dynamic airlift loading problem. Given a set of palletized cargo items which require transportation from an aerial port of embarkation to an aerial port of debarkation within a pre-specified time frame, the dynamic airlift loading problem seeks to partition the pallets into aircraft loads, select an efficient and effective subset of aircraft from available aircraft, and assign the pallets to allowable positions on those aircraft. The dynamic airlift loading problem differs from many partitioning and packing problems described in the literature because, in addition to spatial constraints, factors such …

Achieving The Air Force’S Energy Vision, Frederick G. Harmon, Richard D. Branam, Doral E. Sandlin

Faculty Publications

The US Air Force is the largest consumer of energy in the federal government, spending 9 billion in 2008 to fuel aircraft and ground vehicles as well as provide energy to installations.¹ In that same year, the Air Force s fuel bill of 7 billion amounted to more than half of the US government s total fuel cost.² Because of the critical and central role that energy plays in completion of the Air Force’s mission, the secretary of the Air Force has developed an Air Force energy plan supported by three pillars Reduce Demand, Increase Supply, and Culture …

Cyber Transportation Logistics: Architecting A Global Value-Chain For Services, Yupo Chan, Jaouad Boukachour, Chia-Chu Chiang, Madan Mohan Dey, Charles-Henri Fredouët, Hing-Po Lo, Farhad Moeeni, Albert K. Toh

Faculty Publications

In today’s global economy, products and services are provided across international borders. The sourcing of these products and services becomes an integral part of international businesses. Information, communication and transportation technologies (ICTT) have made this job significantly more streamlined. However, there is an advantage that big companies, such as Wal-Mart, have over small and medium size ones. While the big companies have the ICTT resources to source globally at will, small and medium enterprises (SME) are much less prepared to do so, resulting in a large competitive disadvantage. By contrasting SMEs with their more successful “big brothers,” we highlight the …

As The Pmi Turns: A Tool For The Supply Chain Manager, Matthew Lindsey, Robert Pavur

Faculty Publications

Supply chain managers use the PMI, an index of business activity and proxy for the general business cycle, to obtain valuable information important to strategic managerial planning. This research explores a methodology to provide managerial insight into the general business cycle by tracking and forecasting cycle turns in the PMI. A regression model is developed based on inherent cycles in the PMI between 12 and 65 months to forecast turning points for the index and anticipate changes in the business cycle, which is superior to the more commonly used Box-Jenkins forecasting technique. Strategic planning using this knowledge allows management to …

Investigating Schedule Slippage, James V. Monaco, Edward D. White

Faculty Publications

Past research shows that schedule slippage within the acquisition community often adversely affects the cost and performance characteristics within a program. To minimize the risk of underestimating schedule growth, a program manager needs a reliable initial schedule estimate. Statistical models can provide such estimates; however, they require accurate historical data and predictive drivers. Many archival studies have investigated potential drivers of schedule growth. In this article, we review several of those studies that investigated schedule slippage and highlight common potential drivers of schedule growth, ending with a list of variables for estimators to consider for incorporating into future predictive models.

Contingency Contracting In The Low-Intensity Conflict Environment, Steve Bell

Faculty Publications

The United States military presence in Central and South America is under attack, both literally and politically, as bombings and sniper fire directed against U.S. military personnel characterize the low-intensity conflict (LIC) environment in certain parts of Latin America. The process of contracting support for U.S. forces in a LIC environment is oriented toward sustaining operations in the field, as opposed to contracting for mobilization or surge production. A significant characteristic of this field support is that a contracting officer (KO) deploys overseas with the supported military unit. Some of the unique concerns faced by a KO deploying with an …