Thesis/Capstone
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The foodservice distribution industry in the United States is projected to experience a 40% growth from 2022 to 2025. As the industry expands, an increasing number of companies are adopting an omnichannel supply chain strategy. In this context, our sponsor company, a large U.S. foodservice distribution company, aims to optimize...
Thesis/Capstone
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The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the vulnerabilities of supply chain systems, and companies must take Supply Chain Risk Management seriously to build resilience against future unknown disruptions. However, measuring risk and its impact is challenging due to data availability, interpretation of different types of risks, and complex product-supplier networks. Xylem...
Thesis/Capstone
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Stockouts present significant challenges for Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies, adversely affecting profitability and customer satisfaction. This Capstone report investigates key drivers causing Case Fill Rate (CFR) to fall below target levels and identifies the best model for predicting future CFR for the sponsor company. By utilizing hypothesis testing and...
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In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, biotech companies faced an unprecedented challenge to develop vaccines within a very short time. The revolutionary nature of vaccines has expedited their development and deployment, but their association with ultra-cold storage and transportation poses challenges for equitable distribution. As the world approaches normalcy...
Thesis/Capstone
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Trends toward patient-centric deliveries in the pharmaceutical industry pose a challenge for integration of sustainable supply chain design. This patient-centricity entails more distributed demand, smaller shipments, and more frequent deliveries. Our research utilizes scenario planning for quantification of CO2e and taxation within a pharmaceutical distribution network located in Brazil, where...
Thesis/Capstone
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Our sponsor company, a leading fast-moving consumer goods corporation in the Indian Subcontinent (ISC), faces ongoing challenges in forecasting the volatile demand in this region. Currently, company’s demand planning relies heavily on human judgment, resulting in persistent inaccuracies and biases. This capstone develops a standardized and quantitative demand forecast methodology...
Thesis/Capstone
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Our project sponsor, a major third-party logistics provider in Japan, experienced a severe disruption that destroyed one of their primary distribution centers for a specific industry. This disruption led to increased lead times, degraded service levels, higher logistics costs, and the loss of a client. Consequently, our research focused on...
Thesis/Capstone
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This project sought to address critical gaps in the extended supply chain network of the sponsor company by evaluating the efficacy of establishing a communication protocol with upstream suppliers to detect and mitigate supply chain disruptions. Leveraging an agent-based simulation model, the study examined what supply chain elements should be...
Thesis/Capstone
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This paper explores the complexities of temperature-sensitive food supply chains and the role of third-party logistics (3PL) providers in managing them. Specifically, we partner with the world's second-largest cold chain 3PL provider to establish a dynamic Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) process for their warehousing services. In this project, we...
Thesis/Capstone
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The truckload market in the United States is large, fragmented, and highly competitive. Shippers utilize routing guides to manage and tender shipments to carriers. This research examines how the macro market characteristics and micro shipper characteristics affect routing guide performance. Specifically, each key market area to key market area lane...
Thesis/Capstone
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As warehouse operations grow in complexity, many organizations turn to digital twins to increase their performance capabilities. Digital twins are virtual replicas of physical entities and their interactions with one another. The technologies in a digital twin capture real-time data to support improvements and decision making. This project focuses on...
Thesis/Capstone
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As concerns around climate change increase, companies have been more eager to adopt environmental sustainability goals. The focus of this research is to provide insights into how a company’s position in the overall supply chain impacts their decisions to set environmental sustainability goals and initiatives. In this report, we take...
Thesis/Capstone
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Logistics and transportation companies face a significant challenge with empty miles, which results in costs without generating revenue. To tackle this issue, we explored two potential strategies: one involves generating revenue by collaborating with external companies, while the other involves adopting backhauling strategies to identify potential loads within the network...
Thesis/Capstone
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Effective and efficient inventory management is today more crucial than ever. Three factors drive its importance: (i) the ever-increasing complexity of bills of materials, causing firms to dedicate a large part of their spending to their supply base; (ii) unprecedented uncertainty, making inventory indispensable for business survival; and (iii) an...
Thesis/Capstone
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Drayage, which involves transporting goods from ports to drop facilities, has become increasingly difficult to predict due to the volatility of macroeconomic conditions. As a result, our sponsor company, a third-party logistics (3PL), sought to identify the key macroeconomic indicators that affect drayage volume and whether these indicators vary by...
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This capstone project studies the methods to effectively calculate scope 3 emissions for the packaging boxes of Dell Technologies. The study emphasizes that all sustainability elements are interconnected, and trade-offs need to be considered to optimize overall sustainability in packaging. The model answers questions such as the relationship between material...
Thesis/Capstone
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COVID-19 vaccine access inequity was a major challenge during the pandemic. This inequity was present between countries and regions and within cities. We developed a novel approach to measure and improve vaccine access equity to address this issue. Our approach first created a vaccination attainment index based on CDC COVID-19...
Thesis/Capstone
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This capstone project evaluates the application of stochastic optimization techniques in middle-mile transportation planning, incorporating historical variance in transportation time and yard dwell time. Wayfair's current middle-mile planning process uses advanced forecasting and optimization techniques, but it struggles to account for the randomness and variation of the real world. To...
Thesis/Capstone
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To mitigate operational disruptions, oil and gas companies maintain high levels of Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (MRO) inventory. However, our sponsor company was found to have twice the nonmoving inventory value compared to its competitors, prompting an interest to reduce inventory holding costs — the cost associated with the storage...
Thesis/Capstone
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The global transportation sector holds the top position as the primary source of greenhouse gas emissions, with road transportation, especially heavy-duty vehicles, being the primary source. Greenhouse gases significantly impact global warming by trapping heat in the Earth's atmosphere, causing rising temperatures. This phenomenon, the greenhouse effect, results in various...
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Over the past decade, the oilfield services industry has experienced two major trends: the drive to reduce costs and the push for sustainability. In this context, our sponsor company seeks to optimize the distribution of materials and supplies in their global network, while considering both distribution costs and greenhouse gas...
Thesis/Capstone
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Food insecurity is a problem that affects people in every county within the United States. To combat this issue, many organizations across the country provide charitable food assistance to their communities. The demand for these services is variable, and many of these organizations do not have a consistent method of...
Thesis/Capstone
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An organization’s procurement process is pivotal for its success in a competitive market. The increased uncertainty and complexity of post-pandemic supply chains have made procurement a more valuable focus point among organizations and a differentiating factor to achieve a competitive advantage. The sponsor company of this study believes that the...
Thesis/Capstone
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Design of supply chain networks is a key strategic decision in supply chain management. Our capstone sponsor Armada is a supply chain service provider to restaurant chains across the United States. The company is envisioning a redesign of their current service network based on two components: (1) the addition of...
Thesis/Capstone
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Product portfolio complexity poses a significant challenge for many consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers, resulting in higher costs, risks, and production time. This work aims to assist the sponsor company in managing and measuring its complexity and determining the financial impact of delisting complex SKUs. We used a four-phase methodology...