This newsletter is aimed at improving communication both within and by the group to help the group achieve its goals. What is the mission of the group? Who is in the group?
To compete in production and market environments that are dynamic and uncertain, manufacturers need to effectively produce and introduce a variety of products, manage complex product, component and raw material flows, and utilize assets efficiently. The Leaders for Manufacturing’s Scheduling and Logistics research program is an industry and university partnership for improving the theory and practice of manufacturing by
(i) determining new strategies for scheduling and logistics,
(ii) determining and optimizing trade-offs within current scheduling and logistics systems,
(iii) understanding and improving the scheduling and logistics infrastructure, including : forecasting, all aspects of capacity, economic effects, information technologies, and human resources.
The plan is to have a bimonthly newsletter containing information and items of interest to the participant companies, faculty, LFM masters students and Ph.D. students. The newsletter will have three main sections :
The more people contributing articles, ideas on articles or even just notices they want to have generally communicated, the more successful the newsletter will be. So please if you have something you want see in the newsletter or an opinion on how it could be improved please contact me.
Brian Tomlin
Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Building E53-364,
50 Memorial Drive
MA 02142
Phone : 617-253-6638
Email : btomlin@mit.edu
January will be a busy month for the program with 2nd year Masters students returning from their company internship projects, plant tours of the sponsor companies and lots of companies recruiting during the month.
Scheduling & Logistics Knowledge Review
Bldg. E51, Room 149, 8.30-1.50 PM Returning students will present the major issues of their theses.8.30 : Bret Bissell
Customer-centered Methodology for Design of a Customer Service8.55 : Barrett Crane
Cycle time, Cost and Defect Reduction Processes for Low Volume Manufacturing9.20 : Michael Carnette
Product Flow Improvements between internal Kodak divisions9.45 : Thomas Kelsch
Using Supply Chain Flexibility to plan for Uncertainty in Demand10.25 : Michael Lynch
Personal Computer Manufacturing Strategy; Value chain partnering as a source of competitive advantage10.50 : David Myron
Paint Blocking in Ford’s In-Line Vehicle Sequencing Environment11.15 : John Strimling
Constraint Based Optimization of Manufacturing and Sales in the Copper tubing Industry11.40 : Kevin Thompson
Total Cost reduction through an Improvement of the Use and Inventory Management of Consumables and Spare Parts12.45 : Michael Polizzi
Synchronization of Material Flow in the Cab Shop13.10 : Christopher Richard
Data-Driven Logistics Planning
Recruiting (Alcoa, Motorola, UTC, Chrysler, HP, Digital, Boeing, Ford, Intel)
The annual LFM Plant Tour will be taking place with visits to the following companies around the U.S. (Kodak, GM, Ford, Chrysler, Intel and Boeing)
Chris is developing a computer model to assist the production planning and purchasing people in setting inventory levels and order quantities with the objective of minimizing the total cost of logistics.
The root of the model has the total cost as the sum of order costs, holding costs and stockout costs. Although this can be described in one mathematical equation the equation is not one that is particularly user friendly to the person who has to make logistics decisions. Chris is creating an interface that allows the user to put information into the model in forms that he uses in his everyday decision making process. This data is then translated into mathematical parameters. For example, instead of asking the user to input the standard deviation of demand during component lead time, the user would be asked for forecast data, actual sales data and data about component lead time and this information would be translated into the standard deviation.
One of the elements of the total cost is the stockout cost, the cost incurred when an order cannot be fulfilled within the quoted lead time. Chris is trying to quantify this cost by interviewing the sales force. He is trying to relate the stockout cost to the customer type and to the extra amount of time required for shipment (beyond the desired ship date).
Ideally Chris would like this to be an optimization model but this is made difficult by the non linearity of the problem. At the very least he will develop a "trade-off" model that allows the user to see the trade-offs that are made by varying parameters.
Tom’s project had two distinct phases. The first phase was a complete analysis of the Order Fulfillment Cycle within Bay Networks. The final product of this analysis was a detailed block diagram that contained all the drivers contributing to lead time. From this diagram a list of recommendations for improvement was generated, leading to the second phase of his project.
This phase involves modeling a portion of the order fulfillment cycle process, namely the receipt of printed circuit boards from external suppliers. Through simulation, this model will help Bay Networks find an efficient operating procedure that gives them the flexibility to deal with unexpected demand while keeping costs and exposure to a minimum.
Mike is working at a GM assembly plant in Linden, New Jersey that makes Chevy Blazers and S-10 pick up trucks. The basic concept of his project is a material delivery system.
The main element that Mike is implementing is a pull card system. At this stage of the project operators are working out of boxes of materials. When they finish working out of a box they discard it, allowing the next box to slide into position (the boxes are on gravity feed roller racks). There is a card or "ticket" in each new box. The operator removes the ticket and places it in a "mailbox".
Next a delivery stockman cycles every hour in a set loop. Thus, every hour he passes every drop-off point in the same order. At each drop-off point the driver removes discarded empty boxes, collects any cards and loads boxes of new parts (these new boxes being triggered by the cards collected on the previous cycle).
Mike has had many discussions with all the parties involved in the new method and the acceptance and support for the idea is strong. The targeted full start up date was December 13.
Please contact me if anyone has any information or notices relevant to LFM masters students and the Scheduling and Logistics Group. Information from companies on possible internships, ideas from students on types of projects that would interest them etc.
The aim of this section is to enhance communication between M.I.T. and the sponsor companies on the ongoing research in the Scheduling and Logistics area. Ideally this communication will be a two way street with the faculty and Ph.D. students giving the companies overviews of ongoing research and the companies informing the faculty of areas in which they would like to see research undertaken.
Hopefully this newsletter will be a vehicle for getting ideas and problems out to the general community so as to build on the LFM company/academic framework to enhance the understanding of the issues in scheduling and logistics and how to generate tangible benefits for the companies.
An overview of a current research project or an overview of an LFM masters project will be carried in each issue.
Please contact me if anyone has any research opportunities that they would like to have pursued or if anyone is looking for companies from which to gather data etc. to further their research. The newsletter will be a good tool to get your needs to a wide audience.
Jeannette Nymon, 412-337-4325/ -2737, nymon_jg@atc.alcoa.com
Joe Velez, 319-359-2163/ -2755, VELEZ01@ssw.alcoa.com
John Harrington, 508-880-8319, harrington@islnds.enet.dec.com
Stu Sharpe, 508-493-5059, sharpe@asabet.enet.dec.com
Bruce Arntzen, 508-493-5059
Bill Colwell, 313-322-0260/ -390-9232, usfmcmyh@ibmmail.com
Gene Coffman, 313-5692-2079/ -2381
Sita Bhaskaran, 810-986-2302/ -0574, sbhaskar@cmsa.gmr.com
Paul Williams, 415-857-3964/ -6278, williams@hpl.hp.com
Shailendra Jain, 415-857-3597/ -6278
Scott Elliot, 707-577-5545/ -2104, scott_elliot@hp-SantaClara-om2.0m.hp.cm
Steve Smith, 602-554-8066/ -6838, SSmith@FA.intel.COM (or stephen_p_smith@ccm.ch.intel.com)
Ron Caldwell, 716-726-2724/ -6945, Caldwell@Kodak.COM
George Daddis, 716-477-3241/-588-8274, KP26.567736@kodako.kodak.com
Marty Melone, 716-726-0352/ -1312, LOCKOVM1.247550@kodako.kodak.com
Chuck Petro, 716-726-3190/ -6945, LOCKOVM1.VAB811@kodako.kodak.com
Bryan Parks, 716-726-9382/ -????, LOCKOVM1.LL504729@kodako.kodak.com
Bryan Gilpin, 708-576-5470/ -538-7791, abg005@email.mot.com
Anantaram Balakrishnan, 617-253-0467, anant@mit.edu
Stan Gershwin, 617-253-2149, gershwin@mit.edu
Steve Graves, 617-253-6602, sgraves@mit.edu
Tom Magnanti, 617-253-6604, magnanti@mit.edu
Vien Nguyen, 617-253-0486, vien@mit.edu
Don Rosenfield, 617-253-1064, donrose@mit.edu
Larry Wein, 617-253-6697, lwein@mit.edu