http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/7916 Fri, 24 May 2013 10:33:08 GMT 2013-05-24T10:33:08Z http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/78490 Operational efficiency through resource planning optimization and work process improvement Balwani, Siddharth (Siddharth Vashdev) This thesis covers work done at National Grid to improve resource planning and the execution of pipeline construction and maintenance work carried out at the yards. Resource Planning, the art of picking the right jobs for the right days and assigning the right crews to them while meeting constraints of regulation, customer service, and safety at the minimum cost is an extremely difficult problem. This is exacerbated by the fact that there needs to be enough slack in the system to deal with one or more pipeline leaks that may be called in. At the execution stage, when the jobs are carried out by crews, the lack of standardization in work processes dealing with granting and approval of overtime, productivity tracking, data collection, and imperfect alignment of incentives make it difficult to get the best work from the crews. These issues lead to high levels of overtime at yards, which are the major source of costs for gas operations for the company. We propose the Resource Allocation and Planning Tool (RAPT) accompanied by yard level process management to improve operations performance. To automate short term planning, RAPT includes a two stage stochastic optimization model to perform job scheduling and crew assignment in the presence of a variable number of emergency leaks, thus creating optimal daily and weekly plans with minimal overtime costs. The tool also serves as a business intelligence platform, providing a companywide view of gas operations efficiency and as a decision aid, enabling management to predict the impact of management policies on field operations. The execution of work was improved by the creation of new processes for scheduling, crew data entry, overtime approval, incorporating accountability and oversight at multiple levels. This work has enabled more consistent processes, better overtime and productivity management, and the ability to understand and track deviations. These changes are currently being piloted at yards across the company and the initial results are very encouraging. As a direct result of this work, National Grid has the potential to achieve up to 65% reduction in overtime, saving the company a substantial amount of money. Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division; and, (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; in conjunction with the Leaders for Global Operations Program at MIT, 2012.; Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.; Includes bibliographical references (p. 84-85). Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/78490 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/78393 Decision systems performance: an experimental investigation of computer-aided management decision making. Marcotte, Albert Andrew Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Alfred P. Sloan School of Management. Thesis. 1974. Ph.D.; MICROFICHE COPY ALSO AVAILABLE IN DEWEY LIBRARY.; Leaves 9, 10 omitted in paging. Vita.; Bibliography: leaves [197-205]. Tue, 01 Jan 1974 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/78393 1974-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/78148 Approximating the performance of a last mile transportation system Wang, Hai, S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Last Mile Problem (LMP) refers to the provision of travel service from the nearest public transportation node to a home or office. We study the supply side of this problem in a stochastic setting, with batch demands resulting from the arrival of groups of passengers at rail stations or bus stops who request last-mile service. Closed-form bounds and approximations are derived for the performance of Last Mile Transportations Systems as a function of the fundamental design parameters of such systems. An initial set of results is obtained for the case in which a fleet of vehicles of unit-capacity provides the Last Mile service and each delivery route consists of a simple round-trip between the rail station and bus stop and the single passenger's destination. These results are then extended to the general case in which the capacity of a vehicle is an arbitrary, but typically small (under 10) number. It is shown through comparisons with simulation results, that a particular strict upper bound and an approximate upper bound, both derived under similar assumptions, perform consistently and remarkably well for the entire spectrum of input values and conditions simulated. These expressions can therefore be used for the preliminary planning and design of Last Mile Transportation Systems, especially for determining approximately resource requirements, such as the number of vehicles/servers needed to achieve some pre-specified level of service. Thesis (S.M. in Transportation)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Operations Research Center, 2012.; Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.; Includes bibliographical references (p. 113). Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/78148 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/77877 Three essays on product quality and pricing Nistor, Cristina (Cristina Daniela) This dissertation consists of three essays on product quality and pricing. Essay 1: Pricing and Quality Provision in a Channel: A Model of Efficient Relational Contracts The first essay analyzes how quality concerns affect relationships in a channel. A firm concerned about uncontractible quality for a customizable good has to pay higher prices to sustain a relationship with the supplier. If the customizable good has very volatile demand, premium payments on this good cannot be sustained. Instead, the downstream firm pays a premium for a good with more stable demand that is correlated with demand for the customizable good. I use a novel dataset containing sales made by a wholesaler to Asian restaurants in the Southeastern United States to test this prediction empirically. As predicted by the proposed model, if customizable goods have very volatile demand, the high end restaurants do not pay a premium on those goods but instead pay a premium for other goods with more stable demand. Essay 2: Third Party Marketing Approvals The second essay measures the effect of competition in a certifier market. When customers purchase new products, there is often a degree of uncertainty about their quality. A common solution is to rely on a third-party certifier to provide some form of accreditation that signals quality. However, the incentives of a third-party certifier may not be completely benign. Competitive certification markets may lead the certifiers to provide unduly positive evaluations of quality to gain market share or provide unduly negative evaluations in order to gain credibility with end-users. This paper exploits an unusual natural experiment to evaluate the extent to which third-parties can be relied upon to correctly report product quality. It focuses on the FDA's decision to allow third parties to prepare certifications for certain medical devices, and observes how this decision to introduce competition at the reviewer stage has affected the quality of products allowed to go to market. There is evidence that allowing third party certification leads to significantly lower product quality. However, experience with using a third party reviewer in the past diminishes the negative effect of reviewer competition. Essay 3: Layaway and the Quasi-Endowment Effect of Installment Payments The third essay explores the quasi-endowment effect. The paper evaluates how much consumers are willing to prepay for a purchase which will be experienced in the future. In particular, the results indicate that prepaid installment plans allow the consumer to start deriving utility for the purchase from the moment of the first payment. This quasi-endowment effect is felt only for goods that are purchased for own consumption. Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2012.; Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.; Includes bibliographical references. Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/77877 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z