Predicting customer demand in the highly competitive grocery retail business has become extremely difficult, especially for promotional items. The difficulty in promotional forecasting has resulted from numerous internal and external factors that affect the demand patterns. It has also resulted...

This thesis focuses on documenting learnings from a RFID data exchange pilot in the fast moving consumer goods industry. The pilot we studied is a collaborative effort between two of the largest retailers in the world and five of their major suppliers, facilitated by EPCglobal and the MIT...

Process integration has become more and more important in today's world where companies' supply chains have become more complex. Companies around the world are beginning to realize the importance of integrating their supply chain business processes to achieve fulfillment excellence....

The application of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) has been studied for decades, and many field trials have been executed to evaluate the usability of RFID systems, the business case of RFID applications and so forth. One of the trial fields is its application to supply chain management...

Currently many alternative options exist to satisfy the RFID mandate by Wal-Mart--tag cases at the exit doors, tag all cases at the supplier's warehouse docks, tag a certain section of the warehouse, etc. The big question is how to prevent Wal-Mart suppliers from treating the cost of EPC...

We explore corporate decisions and their solutions under uncertainty using engineering methods. Corporate decisions tend to be complex; they are interdisciplinary and defy programmable solutions. To address these challenges, we take an engineering approach. Our proposition is that as in an...

The semiconductor industry is characterized by a high cost of capital equipment and fast change in process technology. Therefore Intel ® Corporation as the world's largest semiconductor company has a significant advantage over its competitors in reusing its semiconductor equipments. Not only...

Cost evaluations do not always include the costs associated with risks when organizations make strategic sourcing decisions. This research was conducted to establish and quantify the impact of risks and risk-related costs on sourcing decisions for the automotive industry. The focus is on...

Lockheed Martin designs and builds commercial satellites to customers' specifications. The customers, such as telecommunications companies and weather forecasters, are very price sensitive and, usually, award contracts to the lowest priced bids. Lockheed manufactures satellites using a...

Partners in Health's (PIH) supply chain in Haiti has become strained over the past five years due to the organization's rapid growth. Under the current system, the majority of PIH's products are obtained through an annually placed order. All goods from this order are stored at the central...