Retail companies struggle to maintain the appropriate levels of inventory on promotional and seasonal items due to management pressure to never be out of stock. Dynamically changing desired service levels during promotions or seasonal periods will ensure accurate safety stock levels and reduce manual interventions. We simulate inventory policies introducing...
Business forecasting frequently combines quantitative time series techniques with qualitative expert opinion overrides to create a final consensus forecast. The objective of these overrides is to reduce forecast error, which enables safety stock reduction, customer service improvement, and manufacturing schedule stability. However, these overrides often fail to improve final forecast...
The number of natural hazards has been increasing over the last 10 years. Understanding the impact of natural hazards on retail networks is crucial to make effective planning against disruptions. We used daily sales and inventory data from a country-wide retail network and natural emergencies historic data to quantify the...
Effective businesses implement a monthly Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) process within their organizations to align and coordinate different functions of the business under a single plan. Despite this significant undertaking, once businesses align on a S&OP plan, little effort is made on methodically assessing risks in the plan to...
Many supply chains must change in order to capture new opportunities and adapt to new demands and new markets. This is study explains how we can improve the delivery policy in the cement industry to lead the change needed. We have studied the case where a cement company, Votorantim Cimentos...
The fashion industry has been facing many challenges when it comes to forecasting demand for new products. The macroeconomic shifts in the industry have contributed to short product lifecycles and the obsolescence of the retail calendar, and consequently an increase in demand variability. This project tackles this problem from a...
Transportation costs constitute an important part of total logistics costs and have a dramatic impact on all kinds of decisions across the supply chain. Accurate estimation of transportation costs can help shippers make better decisions when planning transportation budgets and can help carriers estimate future cash flows. This study develops...
This capstone assesses the feasibility and potential value of implementing Demand Sensing in the supp ly chain of a major consumer medical device company - Johnson & Johnson Vision Care. Specifically, we explore the potential benefits of incorporating downstream Supply Chain data into forecasting, reducing l atency between Sales and...
A set of contracts guides every movement of cargo from one point to another. In this thesis, we focus on the contract between the charterer and the ship-owner in the liquid bulk ocean-shipping market. The contracting process begins with the two parties finding each other suitable and ends with one...
Over the years, supply chain management has continued to change and evolve to become a major component in competitive strategy to enhance organizational productivity and profitability. While considerable research has been done in formulating accurate and robust demand forecasts, many areas for improvement remain in supply chain planning. In particular...
Container shipping is one of the most important aspects of the global supply chain. Currently, approximately 60% of all seaborne trade is moved through containers. However, despite the growth in trade, there has been little investment in process improvements which has led to the growth of supply chain issues in...
Micro and small firms represent the largest percentage of the businesses operating in Latin America having a high employability contribution and a high potential Gross Domestic Product (GDP) impact on the region. However, depending on the context of the country, region and sector nearly one out of four companies fail...
The sponsor company, a multinational CPG, is under pressure to reduce inventory levels of finished goods and raw and pack materials, while achieving its target sales service level. Currently, it uses a single-echelon inventory management approach. This prevents the company from achieving cross stage inventory improvements. For that reason, in...
A multinational chemical company is looking to include duties and duty credits as consideration factors in its production planning. This undertaking requires understanding of not only domestic trading laws but also international trading laws and how trading blocs can affect them. The company’s products are manufactured and shipped across different...
Healthcare cost are on the rise and becoming a major concern in the US economy. In fact, healthcare spending is the largest individual contributor to US gross domestic product. Various stakeholders such as government, insurance and payors are now looking at the healthcare providers and manufacturers to come up with...
Services, more specifically laboratory testing services, that await arrival of customer inputs prior to commencing suffer from long lead times. Can performing the steps in a group of services concurrently with the transportation lead time of customer input reduce service lead times? This research clustered services according to their co-occurrence...
This capstone project studies route deviations in the last-mile deliveries of a large soft drink company. Last-mile delivery is a critical problem due to its substantial economic impact on operational cost, and deviations from the planned routes can potentially prevent companies from minimizing these costs. We study whether delivery crews...
The demand for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) has continued to grow globally over the past decade with increasing numbers of disruptions and plant outages. Considering these dynamics, oil and gas companies will have to prepare their operations to meet increasing demand with agile response to disruptions. This is particularly true...
Logistics efficiency impacts the profitability of manufacturing companies to a large extent. According to IDC Manufacturing Insights Report of 2014, logistics cost makes up 7.87% of sales of the business. Statistics reveal that the carrying cost in China has been increased to over 3.5 trillion RMB in 2016 accounting for...
Changing regulatory requirements continues to be an increasingly complex issue in the medical device industry. Regulations place stress on regional supply chains across the world. Most recently, the European Parliament issued the Medical Device Regulation (EU) 2017/745 instituting new compliance framework for all devices manufactured, sold, and/or distributed in the...
The Mid-day Meal program is an initiative taken by the Government of India to improve the nutritional status of school-age children nationwide. It involves many agencies and NGOs. Akshaya Patra is the most popular and largest NGO among them which in India is currently serving meals to 1.6 million children...
A small chain of gas stations in Brazil intends to expand to new retail locations. Which factors should it consider when locating new stations, in order to better leverage a combination of product prices and transportation costs? This work develops a Linear Optimization network design model in order to identify...
The traditional way to reach customers in e-commerce is home delivery. Retailers have expanded fulfillment options to include picking up from a store, locker, 3rd-party collection point, and more. This study focuses on two channels: pick-up from the store and home delivery. Groceries present a unique category for eCommerce due...
An operations strategy is a method or plan of action that corporations employ to reach their goals. A good strategy enables a company to operate efficiently and use its resources effectively. The purpose of this capstone project is to formulate optimal supply chain operating strategies for demand, sourcing, and distribution...
In the world of consumer packaged goods (“CPGs”), not all demand is created equal. While Base Demand typically comprises anywhere from 50 – 80% of day-to-day volume, other demand profiles, or replenishment streams, make up the delta. For the purpose of this project, demand patterns for five replenishment streams (Base...
