Operations and Supply Chain Management Commons^™

Logistics Network Design With Differentiated Delivery Lead Time: A Chemical Industry Case Study, Michelle Lee Fong Cheong, Rohit Bhatnagar, Stephen C. Graves

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Most logistics network design models assume exogenous customer demand that is independent of the service time or level. This paper examines the benefits of segmenting demand according to lead-time sensitivity of customers. To capture lead-time sensitivity in the network design model, we use a facility grouping method to ensure that the different demand classes are satisfied on time. In addition, we perform a series of computational experiments to develop a set of managerial insights for the network design decision making process.

The Role Of Manufacturing Flexibility On Product Platform Development, Soumen Ghosh, Byung Joon Park

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In recent years firms from a range of industries have responded to growing market uncertainty by investing heavily in manufacturing flexibility. Manufacturing Flexibility is understood as process flexibility, that is a process that results from being able to build different types of products on the same production line at the same time. One benefit of manufacturing flexibility is the reduction of change over cost from building one product to another. Flexible manufacturing also relieves the problem of overcapacity, since excessive overcapacity could be avoided through the introduction of flexible manufacturing plants. Recently, firms have examined a new concept of enabling …

Technology Based Supply Chain Training: Its Use And Effectiveness, Brian J. Gibson, Jonathan D. Whitaker

Journal of Transportation Management

Employee training is a huge business in the United States with spending in the neighborhood of $51 billion dollars. Over the last five years a growing proportion of training dollars have been committed to technology based training involving distance learning and e-learning. This article reports on the use of these innovative training methods in supply chain management and their impact on organizations in terms of cost effectiveness, time efficiency, skill development, and return on investment.

A Comparison Of Implementation Issues And Strategies For Radio Frequency Identification Technologies Between The U.S. Military And Private Sector Organizations, Kristine M. O'Brien, Stephen M. Swartz

Journal of Transportation Management

The purpose of this research was to study the implementation of radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies used to track equipment and supplies. Current implementation issues and strategies for future use were collected from leading edge organizations from the military and private sector. A formal comparison found both similarities and differences between how industry and the Army are implementing and using RFID technologies in their supply chains and logistics networks. This article focuses on these similarities and differences, to include a gap between the Army and industry regarding RFID tag use and implementation, and a difference in the overall focus of …

The Profit Impact Of A Strategic Approach To Web Enhanced Services (Wes)—A Study Of The Motor Carrier Industry, Gregory M. Kellar, John Xiaoqun Zhang

Journal of Transportation Management

An increasing number of motor carriers offer web-enhanced services (WES) such as real-timetracking-and-tracing, on-line ordering, and conflict resolution. However, the burst of the Internet bubble raised questions as to whether investments in such Internet-related services increase corporate profitability (e.g., Nagarajan et al., 2000). This article studies financial and operational values that web-enhanced services add to publicly traded interstate trucking companies. Large companies offering WES were found to be more profitable than smaller companies in general, and they were more profitable than other large carriers not offering WES. Investments in WES appear to provide a strategic advantage specifically for large companies.

Meeting The Challenge Of Supply Chain Integration: Using Six Sigma For Process Improvement, Kathryn Dobie, Rhonda Hensley

Journal of Transportation Management

Increased performance expectations, a more complex operating environment, rising costs, and declining operating margins have become every day challenges for carrier management. In order to meet these challenges, business-as-usual is not an adequate response. The time has come to take a new look at the way thing are being done and the results that are being achieved. One method of making such an examination, Six Sigma, has produced extraordinary results for many of the manufacturing and service companies, large and small, that have implemented it. The introduction of Six Sigma as a means of examining and improving carrier service delivery …

The Transportation And Warehousing Challenge For Multinational Corporations In China, Garland Chow, Charles Guowen Wang

Journal of Transportation Management

Logistics is a major challenge for multinational corporations seeking to do business in China. Transportation and warehousing are two core activities of logistics which will have to be outsourced or produced internally by foreign firms entering the China market. This paper focuses on road and rail transportation, the primary forms of transport utilized to move finished goods, as well as the warehousing and distribution center service sector. Trucking services and costs are observed to be poor by Western standards. There is no established less-than-truckload (LTL) industry and there are limited trucking networks offering one stop shipping across the country. None …

Hybrid Stochastic Models For Remaining Lifetime Prognosis, Steven M. Cox

Theses and Dissertations

The United States Air Force is developing its next generation aircraft and is seeking to reduce the risk of catastrophic failures, maintenance activities, and the logistics footprint while improving its sortie generation rate through a process called autonomic logistics. Vital to the successful implementation of this process is remaining lifetime prognosis of critical aircraft components. Complicating this problem is the absence of failure time information; however, sensors located on the aircraft are providing degradation measures. This research has provided a method to address at least a portion of this problem by uniting analytical lifetime distribution models with environment and/or degradation …

Port Yard Storage Optimization, Ping Chen, Zhaohui Fu, Andrew Lim, Brian Rodrigues

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The port yard storage optimization problem (PYSOP) originates from space allocation needs at the Port of Singapore. Space allocated to cargo is to be minimized in a designated yard within a time interval. The problem is akin to a packing problem in space and time, but where shapes packed and constraints are particular to port operations. Further, space requests can change within the time interval in which it is requested. This basic problem is generic to port operations and may find applications elsewhere. The PYSOP is NP-hard, but we propose a number of metaheuristics. Extensive experiments were conducted and good …

Assessing Advanced Manufacturing Technologies: A New Approach Using The Analytic Network Process, Ozden Bayazit

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of Business

This paper illustrates an application of the Analytic Network Process (ANP) to the decision by a tractor manufacturing company to implement flexible manufacturing systems (FMS). The ANP is a methodology recently introduced by Thomas L Saaty for multiple criteria problems where there is feedback and interdependence among decision attributes and alternatives. We determined the factors that affect the level of implementation of FMS by doing literature searches and further refined those factors through decision-making team's opinion. We ended up with 28 factors. The results of our decision model show that the company should not implement FMS with an overall priority …

Free-Stall Dimensions: Effects On Preference And Stall Usage, Cassandra B. Tucker, Daniel M. Weary, David Fraser

Housing and Confinement of Farm Animals Collection

In 2 experiments, free-stall dimensions were examined to determine how they affected stall preference, usage, cleanliness, and milk production in Holstein dairy cattle. In experiment 1, stall width (112 or 132 cm) and stall length (229 and 274 cm from curb to wall) were compared in a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement of stall treatments using 15 individually housed, non-lactating animals. Cows showed no clear preference for stall size as measured by lying time. When animals had no choice between stalls, average lying time was higher in the wide stalls than in the narrow stalls (10.8 vs. 9.6 ± 0.3 …

Restructuring The Region : The Evolution Of The Optics And Imaging Industry In Rochester, Ny, Jennifer Clark

Jennifer Clark

An Exploratory Study Into The Use Of Hyper-Interactive Teaching Technology In The Logistics And Transportation Classroom, Stephen M. Rutner

Journal of Transportation Management

New technologies are being developed that can assist professors in the classroom. One is the Hyper-Interactive Teaching Technology or H-ITT. This is a system that allows instructors to gather instantaneous feedback from st udents for a variety of topics. The article examines the benefits and disadvantages of using H-ITT in the classroom and presents some initial findings.

Using Life-Cycle Costing And The Strategic Profit Model To Enhance Motor Carrier Capital Equipment Management, Joe B. Hanna, Andrew Stapleton, Brian R. Zoll

Journal of Transportation Management

Participants in the increasingly competitive motor carrier industry are constantly trying to identify ways to enhance customer service levels and/or reduce costs. This research summarized case-based data from three large carriers to examine the use of life-cycle costing as a method to enhance motor carrier equipment management. The financial results of applying the technique are then examined by applying the Strategic Profit Model.

Carrier Scorecarding: Purposes, Processes, And Benefits, Brian J. Gibson, Jerry W. Wilson

Journal of Transportation Management

Carrier scorecarding programs (CSP’s) provide a formal, quantitative mechanism for use in assessing carrier performance. Such programs provide valuable input for carrier rationalization and contract development initiatives and can also serve as a key component of a Six Sigma program. In this study, the overall goal was to address three research questions. First, why are organizations adopting CSP’s? Second, how are organizations using carrier scorecarding to select and manage carriers? Finally, how does carrier scorecarding impact organizational performance? These questions were used to develop the set of research propositions that formed the basis for the investigation. In-depth case studies of …

Basing Rate Adjustments For Motor Carriers On Statistical Evidence, L Douglas Smith, James F. Campbell, Ray Mundy

Journal of Transportation Management

Pricing services of motor carriers is a dynamic process, with continuous pressure from customers to offer competitive rates and discounts. This can lead to a profusion of special arrangements with rates that poorly reflect the services rendered. This article shows how standard database systems and statistical models can be used to extract useful information from bills of lading to assist in the pricing of freight services. Summaries of business performance are produced according to terminal facility, shipping origin, shipping destination, individual shipping lane and individual customer. User-friendly statistical models are constructed to produce benchmarks for rates and revenues considering the …

Depot Repair Capacity As A Criterion For Transportation Mode Selection In The Retrograde Movement Of Reparable Assets, William A. Cunningham, Stephen Swartz, Harold M. Kahler

Journal of Transportation Management

To support smaller reparable asset inventories, current Air Force logistics policies direct the “expedited evacuation of reparables ... to the source of repair.” Mode selection is based on the asset. Focusing on the asset is an efficient and effective method of getting assets to where they are needed in a timely manner in the forward portion of the supply pipeline. However, in the reverse portion of the pipeline, the demand for an asset may no longer be critical to how it is transported. The quantity of the asset at the depot may already exceed repair capacity. In this instance, rapid …

Analysis Of Air Force Compliance With Executive Order 13149, John C. Kirkwood

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force must comply with Executive Order (E.O.) 13149: Greening The Government Through Federal Fleet and Transportation Efficiency. This order focuses on the reduction of petroleum consumption in an effort to reduce dependence on foreign oil and preserve the environment. Specifically, it directs federal agencies (such as the Air Force) to reduce fuel use in the vehicle fleet 20 percent between Fiscal Years (FY) 1999 and 2005. This thesis examines the Air Force's current alternative fuel vehicle (AFV) program and its evolution to determine how effective it is and how it should be adjusted to promote compliance with E.O. …

A Performance Evaluation Of A Lean Reparable Pipeline In Various Demand Environments, Melvin E. Maxwell Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Lean production and logistics processes were developed in the commercial sector to reduce total system costs of production while simultaneously providing high levels of customer service, increased productivity, and increased worker utilization, In 1993, the Air Force instituted the Lean Logistics program, which successfully implemented some commercial lean principles, enabling a reduction in the total reparable asset material requirement for the Air Force reparable asset pipeline. The Air Force is attempting to further implement lean production principles into depot repair in hopes of further enhancing reparable asset pipeline cost and customer service performance. However, the failure of reparable assets, which …

Purchasing And Supply Chain Management Costing: An Air Transport Perspective Derived Through Commercial Air Cargo Firms, Kurt Ettrich

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force has struggled to completely understand the costs associated with its operations. The issue of understanding cost is complex, involving many perspectives, methods and techniques. When examined from a broad standpoint, total supply chain costs can include a firm's costs plus upstream and downstream costs. This perspective takes vendors, suppliers and end customers into consideration. From this broad standpoint, the Air Force does not know its total supply chain cost. Since the Air Force's supply chain is too broad to be a focus of this study, a smaller segment was chosen for a closer look. Specifically, air cargo …

Air Force Materiel Command: A Survey Of Performance Measures, Marcia Leonard

Theses and Dissertations

Performance measurement has long been a matter of debate in logistics. However, in the recent past, there has been a renewed emphasis as AF leaders continue to seek funding for weapon system spares despite marginal improvements in mission capability. The Chief's Logistics Review, Logistics Transformation Program, AFMC Constraints Assessment Program, the Spares Requirement Review Board, the Spares Campaign, and the Depot Maintenance Reengineering and Transformation all represent efforts to find and implement effective answers (RAND, 2003:ix). And, while there appears to be a consensus that better performance measures are needed, there is little agreement on exactly what should be measured, …

The Operational Impact Of Mobility Readiness Spares Package Configuration During Operation Iraqi Freedom, Dianna Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Utilizing the Aircraft Sustainability Model (ASM), Air Force logisticians must determine the best possible number and mix of spares and repair parts for each deployable readiness spares package, better known as a mobility readiness spares package (MRSP). By analyzing MRSP support for Operation IRAQI FREEDOM (OIF), Air Force leadership can have a current picture of MRSP operational effectiveness and mission support capabilities. This research focused on determining the current configuration of MRSPs for OIF by selecting a representative array of MRSPs and supported weapon systems actively involved in OIF, and obtaining relevant support effectiveness measures. Measures selected for analysis were …

Mitigating Growth Cost For Mobility Readiness Spares Packages, Stephen D. Gray

Theses and Dissertations

A Mobility Readiness Spares Package (MRSP) is an air-transportable package of spare parts configured for rapid deployment in support of conflict or war. Each package is tailored to support a specific scenario, for a specific type and number of aircraft without re-supply for the first 30 days of deployment. Inventory is limited to mission-critical spares. The high cost of airlift and spares drive a necessity to keep MRSPs as small as possible, yet robust enough to meet wartime goals. Historical MRSP inventories exhibit significant volatility and the subsequent growth of their inventory creates significant cost to the Air Force. Annual …

Customer-Focused Business Practice Adoption: A Comparison Of Private And Public Sector Implementations, James P. Swisher

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis evaluates a variety of documented cases of customer-focused business practice initiatives to discern common principles of implementation within the private and public sectors. The business practices Quality, Activity-Based Costing (ABC), Customer Profitability Analysis (CPA), and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) were found to be the major techniques utilized over the past three decades. Cases were collected which documented implementation of these customer-focused business practices in the private and public sectors. Using grounded theory methodology, the implementations were analyzed for emerging concepts. The concepts uncovered in this study were further analyzed through a comparison of private and public sector implementations. …

Location Optimization Of Continental United States Strip Alert Sites Supporting Homeland Defense, Jon A. Eberlan

Theses and Dissertations

With the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and the fall of the Soviet Union, the number of alert aircraft dwindled to 14 aircraft located at 7 sites on September 11, 2001. After the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center Towers and the Pentagon, the United States could not continue to endorse an outward looking air defense strategy. Terrorism completely changed the landscape of the air defense mission. This research develops a location optimization model to optimally locate alert sites post-11 September to cover areas of interest in the CONUS. The model finds the minimum number of alert sites, minimum …

Solving Hierarchical Constraints Over Finite Domains With Local Search, Martin Henz, Roland H.C. Yap, Yun Fong Lim, Seet Chong Lua, J. Paul Walser, Xiao Ping Shi

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Many real world problems have requirements and constraints which conflict with each other. One approach for dealing with such over-constrained problems is with constraint hierarchies. In the constraint hierarchy framework, constraints are classified into ranks, and appropriate solutions are selected using a comparator which takes into account the constraints and their ranks. In this paper, we present a local search solution to solving hierarchical constraint problems over finite domains (HCPs). This is an extension of local search for over-constrained integer programs WSAT(OIP) to constraint hierarchies and general finite domain constraints.The motivation for this work arose from solving large airport gate …

Organic Production Systems: What The Biological Cell Can Teach Us About Manufacturing, Lieven Demeester, Knut Eichler, Christoph H. Loch

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Biological cells run complicated and sophisticated production systems. The study of the cell's production technology provides us with insights that are potentially useful in industrial manufacturing. When comparing cell metabolism with manufacturing techniques in industry, we find some striking commonalities, but also some important differences. Like today's well-run factories, the cell operates a very lean production system, assures quality at the source, and uses component commonality to simplify production. While we can certainly learn from how the cell accomplishes these parallels, it is even more interesting to look at how the cell operates differently. In biological cells, all products and …

Analysis Of The Current Air Force-Specific Status Of Resources And Training System (Sorts) Reporting System, Tia A. Jordan

Theses and Dissertations

The status of resources and training system (SORTS) is a process that measures the health of units and wings in day-to-day preparedness and the ability to execute a major theater war or other scenario envisioned in the national security strategy. With talk of the current reporting system not accurately reflecting units readiness, it is time to evaluate the system to identify key problems and re-design the process to better reflect units capabilities. The objective of this thesis was to inform Air Force leadership of the current state of the SORTS system to ensure it was adequate. By surveying current MAJCOM, …

An Analysis Of The Impact Of Base Support Resources On The Availability Of Air Mobility Command Aircraft, Christian E. Randall

Theses and Dissertations

The AMC Directorate of Logistics is responsible for ensuring AMC aircraft are available to accomplish the mission. Currently, however, the organization lacks an objective tool for assessing the impact of proposed operations on the health of the fleet, To improve this process, the Directorate has initiated the development of a Mobility Aircraft Availability Forecast (MAAF) simulation model designed to identify alternatives and associated impacts on aircraft availability, manpower, and cost. This research seeks to assist the MAAF development effort by identifying and demonstrating how different base support factors impact the availability of AMC aircraft. To address this research objective, multiple …

An Analysis Of Depot Repair Capacity As A Criterion In Transportation Mode Selection In The Retrograde Movement Of Reparable Assets, Harold M. Kahler

Theses and Dissertations

To support smaller reparable asset inventories, current Air Force supply and transportation policies direct the expedited evacuation of reparables by bases and deployed units to the source of repair. Mode selection is based on the asset. Focusing on the asset and moving it quickly is an efficient and effective method of getting assets to where they are needed in a timely manner in the forward portion of the supply pipeline. However, in the reverse portion of the pipeline, the demand for a particular type of asset may no longer be the most important factor in how it is transported. The …