2022 Spotlight! Book

The Tauber Institute is the proud inaugural winner of the UPS George D. Smith Prize for effective and innovative preparation of students to be good practitioners of operations research, management science, or analytics.

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The University of Michigan, as an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer, complies with all applicable federal and state laws regarding nondiscrimination and affirmative action. The University of Michigan is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, disability, religion, height, weight, or veteran status in employment, educational programs and activities, and admissions. Inquiries or complaints may be addressed to the Senior Director for Institutional Equity, and Title IX/Section 504/ADA Coordinator, Office for Institutional Equity, 2072 Administrative Services Building, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1432, 734-763-0235, TTY 734-647-1388, institutional.equity@umich.edu. For other University of Michigan information call 734-764-1817.

Regents of the University of Michigan

Jordan B. Acker, Michael J. Behm, Mark J. Bernstein, Paul W. Brown, Sarah Hubbard, Denise Ilitch, Ron Weiser, Katherine E. White, Mary Sue Coleman (ex officio)

©

Regents of the University of Michigan

Welcome 2022 SPOTLIGHT!

The Tauber Ins,tute for Global Opera,ons completed another year of ac,on-based team projects. In this past academic year 2021-2022, 49 students par,cipated in 21 team projects featuring 16 sponsoring companies from a wide range of industries, including aerospace, Internet commerce, high tech, health care, automo,ve, energy and retail. The 2022 sponsors include Amazon, American Industrial Partners, Boeing, BrandSafway, Brunswick, Dell, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, GoPuff, MicrosoQ, MillerKnoll, Na,onal Center for Manufacturing Sciences, Pfizer, Stanley Black & Decker, Stoneridge, and Target. As part of a comprehensive training program students par,cipated in facility tours, and leadership and teamwork training modules leading up to their projects.

The Tauber Institute for Global Operations completed another year of action-based team projects. In this past academic year 2021-2022, 49 students participated in 21 team projects featuring 16 sponsoring companies from a wide range of industries, including aerospace, Internet commerce, high tech, health care, automotive, energy and retail. The 2022 sponsors include Amazon, American Industrial Partners, Boeing, BrandSafway, Brunswick, Dell, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, GoPuff, Microsoft, MillerKnoll, National Center for Manufacturing Sciences, Pfizer, Stanley Black & Decker, Stoneridge, and Target. As part of a comprehensive training program students participated in facility tours, and leadership and teamwork training modules leading up to their projects. The 2022 projects resulted in $1.03 billion in savings according to sponsoring company calculation, an average of $49 million per project over three years.

This book documents student teams’ regional and global impact with execu,ve summaries describing the challenge, method, and results from each sponsored project. The depth and breadth of our students’ projects reflect the demands faced by opera,ons in an ever-changing world. We hope these execu,ve summaries will provide insight into the University of Michigan’s strong global reputa,on and partnerships with leading companies, who know that our students can be called upon to solve some of their most challenging problems.

This book documents student teams’ regional and global impact with executive summaries describing the challenge, method, and results from each sponsored project. The depth and breadth of our students’ projects reflect the demands faced by operations in an ever-changing world. We hope these executive summaries will provide insight into the University of Michigan’s strong global reputation and partnerships with leading companies, who know that our students can be called upon to solve some of their most challenging problems.

Best Regards,

Best Regards,

Hyun-soo Ahn

Hyun-soo Ahn Ford Motor Company Co-Director and Professor of Technology and Operations Ross School of Business

Ford Motor Company Business Co-Director and Jack D. SparksWhirlpool Corpora,on Research Professor of Business Administra,on Ross School of Business

Larry Seiford

Larry Seiford

Goff Smith Engineering CoDirector and Professor of Industrial & Opera,ons Engineering College of Engineering

Goff Smith Co-Director and Professor of Industrial & Operations Engineering College of Engineering

Ray Muscat Industry Director Tauber Ins?tute for Global Opera?ons

Ray Muscat Industry Director Tauber Institute for Global Operations

Damian Beil

Ray Muscat

Damian Beil

Larry Seiford

Ray Muscat

Hyun-soo Ahn

Larry Seiford

Ray Muscat

Sincerely,

Mary Sue Coleman University of Michigan President

Thank you for joining the 29th Spotlight! Team Project Showcase and Scholarship Competition with the Tauber Institute for Global Operations at the University of Michigan. Our students from the Stephen M. Ross School of Business and the College of Engineering are celebrating another year of developing innovative, forward-thinking solutions for real challenges faced by our partner companies. What a wonderful demonstration of our University’s mission in action. Our students strengthen their skills and expertise while delivering results that improve our world.

We greatly appreciate the dedication of Joel D. Tauber, whose vision and generosity are the foundation of the Tauber Institute. I also extend my thanks to the industry partners who so willingly welcomed and supported our students. These collaborations have uniquely prepared participating students for the complex and dynamic environment they will enter after they graduate. That experience is priceless.

SPOTLIGHT!

the Tauber Institute

Tauber Alumni

Action

Table of Contents

a

Challenges in a Dynamic

Thought

Project Descriptions

Robotics

a Strategic Framework

Global

American Industrial Partners - CSC Modernizing Joist Fabrication

Standards.

American Industrial Partners - GD Energy Inventory Management Strategy for GD Energy Products

The Boeing Company – 767 Build Optimization for Military Commercial Derivative Aircraft

The Boeing Company - Configuration Developing a Strategic Framework for Global Expansion

The Boeing Company - Quality Driving Engineering Quality into the Foundation of Business

Rental Order Fulfillment

Maximum Profit

Corporation

Throughput through

Operations

Technologies

Online Customer Service

Efficiency Using

Ford Motor Company Advanced Manufacturing Technology Development Using Synthetic Data for Machine Vision Quality Inspection

General Motors Company Computer Vision for Human Detection in Manufacturing

Gopuff Company - Manufacturing Micro-fulfillment Center (MFC) Inbound Process Standardization

Gopuff Company - Network Network Topology Project

Microsoft Modern Work CSU Digital Transformation 39 MillerKnoll Inventory Optimization Model Project

40 National Center for Manufacturing Science Modeling Technology Transition

Pfizer, Inc. - UK Toward 100% Equipment Reliability at Sandwich, UK

Pfizer, Inc.

Optimizing Material Handling and Storage in Pfizer’s Clinical Supply Chain 43

Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. Advanced ManufacturingWarehouse Optimization

Inc. Stoneridge North America Commercial Vehicle Product Life Cycle Management

Target Corporation Improving Inbound Freight Throughput

About the Tauber Institute

Industry identified a need. The University of Michigan responded.

It all began when a gathering of business advisors identified a key category of employees missing from their organizations: trained professionals who understand both the business and engineering aspects of manufacturing.

As a result of that discussion, the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and College of Engineering formed a new crossunit collaboration. Named for benefactor and U-M alumnus Joel Tauber, the Tauber Institute was born — and immediately began to innovate.

Faculty in the two schools created new courses to deliver an integrated education addressing the challenges of modern manufacturing, with an emphasis on leadership skills.

The Tauber Institute sought every opportunity to immerse students in real-world experiences — leading to the development of Tauber team projects and the annual SPOTLIGHT! event, where students compete for academic scholarships through their presentations about work at top companies across the U.S. and around the world.

Tauber team projects: on display at SPOTLIGHT!

Over the summer, teams of Tauber Institute students tackle a wide range of operations challenges faced by our industry partners. At the annual September SPOTLIGHT! event, student teams present their solutions in a competitive setting to win academic scholarships.

SPOTLIGHT! is an ideal opportunity for corporate representatives to meet Tauber students, develop relationships, and explore how a future Tauber team project could improve operations at their organization. According to sponsoring company calculations, 2021 Tauber team projects resulted in an average savings of $43 million per project over three years, per company calculations. The total projected savings is $1.03 billion.

“When I was honored with the naming of the Tauber Institute back in 1995, I never dreamed it would become the vibrant global network of operations professionals and thought-leaders that it is today. Thank you all for your contributions to this community that inspires me with its energy and its eagerness to embrace new ideas.”

- Joel Tauber

Award Winning Institute

The Tauber Institute has enjoyed many accolades — most recently receiving the UPS George D. Smith Prize for effective education in the fields of operations research, management science, and analytics. But a truer measure of Tauber’s success is that its graduates quickly secure rewarding employment, make an immediate impact in their respective companies, and rise to positions of authority.

SPOTLIGHT!

Year in Review

Tauber Year in Review

The Tauber Leadership Speaker Series is a student-organized initiative to bring executives to the University of Michigan to share insights about their careers, the qualities leaders need to succeed in today’s global economy, and the tangible steps students can take to achieve excellence in their own career paths.

This year the Tauber Institute featured: Leadership Lessons through Lean Transformation Entrepreneur Brian Tauber explored Lean lessons he learned as the Owner & CEO of CPP Global. Brian shared specifics of his company’s remarkable transformation with students, including the financial, personnel, and personal considerations that made the journey challenging – but which took his company from the brink of failure to a successful sale.

ESPN as an Innovation Emmy award-winning executive Sam McCleery founded a company that pioneered the First-and-Ten Yellow Line for football and has worked for Prince Tennis, Cablevision,

Adidas, ESPN, and Under Armour. Sam introduced students to revolutionary aspects of the ESPN brand and delivered a case study on how ESPN became central to American entertainment, sports, and social culture.

Unlocking Secrets of the Toyota Production System

Toyota Production System Support Center President Jamie Bonini provides Toyota Production System expertise to North American organizations with the goal of building high-engagement, highperforming cultures that improve quality, productivity, and reduce lead time. Jamie shared his in-depth understanding of TPS garnered from over two decades of experience with Toyota Motor North America.

Organization Culture: Exploring Your Fit

Tauber alumnus Dave Ostreicher (EGL BSE/MSE-IOE ‘02/’04 & BA Japanese ‘02) helped Tauber students to better define their career goals and to plan their futures with intentionality through his engaging workshops that examine organizational culture and facilitate life planning.

“Hopefully this will help you as you go out there better understand not just the tools – which are critical – but the people, the respect for people which was so key to what we did.”

– Brian Tauber

We learned directly from experienced leaders.

We made an impact in our community.

By providing expert solutions for operations challenges, Tauber Community Service Day teams help community organizations leverage their resources to maximize their good work. This year, Tauber Institute students, alumni, staff, faculty, and Industry Advisory Board members contributed their time and talent to SE Michigan nonprofits Center for Success and Community First.

“Currently, we have over 40 students on a waiting list who are not able to receive one on one literacy mentoring, so the work that the project team did will aid in our recruitment and our mission of uniting the community with literacy to empower them in the journey of education.”

- Heidi Miller, Director of Learning, Center for Success

This year, the Tauber Institute partnered with two local organizations: Center for Success and Communities First

“Being the Community Service Day Chair allowed me to be a part of all three projects as I worked with my committee to reach out to and identify projects for the local non-profit organizations we partnered with this year. It was really rewarding to see the development of each project from the first email sent up to the event on February 11th. On the day of the event, I made sure that the project leads and their teams were supported throughout the day and the event was running smoothly. With some students working in person and the Tauber staff and alumni, organization contacts, and other students working remotely, I ensured that everyone was in the correct places and took the stress of logistics off of the project leads who were then able to focus on the content of their projects and working towards their deliverables.

The most valuable aspect was how much I learned during this hands-on process. I was able to learn about leadership, event coordination, and even about how topics Tauber students are learning in the classroom are directly applicable in different real-life scenarios. For example, one of the projects for Communities First, Inc. involved inventory control methods which we just learned about in TO 605 earlier this semester! Another project for Communities First, Inc. allowed students to utilize their data analytics skills to look for trends in social media data to back up their recommendations.

CSD is a great way to not only gain experience working on a consulting-style project, but also meet other Tauber students, staff, and alumni! It is a unique opportunity to get involved in the Tauber community as well as give back to the local Ann Arbor and metro Detroit communities too.”

- Grace Vandelac (EGL BSE/MSE-IOE ‘23) Community Service Day Chair

“The solutions presented were tangible and realistic, yet creative….We’re excited to move toward implementation of low cost, high benefit systems that will save us money, time and resources.”

- Essence Wilson, Chief Strategy Officer, Communities First

We created new products and thrived in the marketplace.

The Integrated Product Development course brings together students and faculty members from different disciplines for an innovative product design competition. It has been featured on CNN and written up in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Businessweek.

The multidisciplinary course is managed by the Tauber Institute. The Fall semester class was taught by faculty members Eric Svaan of the Ross School of Business and Stephanie Tharp of the Stamps School of Art & Design, and the Winter semester class was taught by Eric Svaan and Deepa Butoliya of the Stamps School of Art & Design

Teams comprised of students from the Stamps School of Art & Design, College of Engineering, School of Information, and Ross School of Business worked together to develop market research, new product concepts, technical solutions, production processes, pricing, inventory, and advertising. Each semester culminated in a trade show where teams introduced their new products to potential consumers in a competitive marketplace.

Fall 2021 Product Challenge: Aging in Place Safely

Students were challenged to design a productdriven solution that would help help Senior Adults Age in Place Safely. Products might for example help seniors in one or more of the areas of household tasks, hobbies, mobility, physical safety and health, mental health, and maintaining social connections.

Winter 2022 Product Challenge: Healthy Women Healthy World

Students were challenged to design and produce a tangible product that would help provide better Health for Women. Products might for example help improve health for women, in one or both of the categories of reproductive and maternal health.

We assessed operations across industries.

Tauber Institute’s facility assessments expose students to operations and manufacturing processes practiced by a wide variety of organizations. Tauber students learn to perform a rapid audit of the state of an operation, judge the relative leanness of the operation, prioritize targets of opportunity for improvement, and develop an action plan to facilitate those improvements. This academic year, the Tauber Institute utilized LeanFlix, an on-demand streaming library of award-winning Lean training videos that includes excellent Virtual Plant Tours. Students were able to safely see plant improvements as if they had visited in person!

A panel of Tauber Institute business and engineering faculty selected the 53rd annual TIME Dealer of the Year Award finalists from each of the four National Automobile Dealer Association regions and also the national award winner. In appreciation, TIME and Ally have established an annual scholarship at the Tauber Institute in the name of TIME, Ally, NADA, and the Dealer of the Year nominees.

The TIME Dealer of the Year Award is considered the most prestigious honor a new car dealer can receive, with fifty new car dealers – out of more than 16,000 dealers nationwide –nominated for the award. Tauber Institute faculty evaluated competitors on the business practices in their dealerships and on their contributions to their community.

Congratulations

We recognized and promoted operations excellence.

to 2022 TIME Dealer of the Year Bob Giles, owner of Giles Automotive in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Education in Action

Tauber team projects provide students with opportunities to tackle operations-related challenges at top companies. Over the summer, 49 business and engineering students worked on 21 team projects sponsored by 16 global firms.

Tauber team project sponsors are leaders in a wide range of industries, including aerospace, internet com merce, high tech, automotive, energy, and retail. The institute is pleased to strengthen relationships with our 2022 project sponsors: American Industrial Partners, Amazon.com Inc, The Boeing Company, BrandSafway, Brunswick Corporation, Dell, Ford Motor Company, General Motors Company, Gopuff, Microsoft, Miller knoll, National Center for Manufacturing Sciences, Pfiz er, Inc., Stanley Black & Decker, Stoneridge, and Target Corporation.

Tauber students addressed substantive issues such as lean process design and implementation, manufacturing site strategic assessment, supply chain implementation, strategic capacity analysis, material handling redesign, new product development strategy, product complexity analysis, manufacturing process design, and machine learning and advanced analytics.

Successful project results in a significant return on a sponsoring company’s investment. Initial sponsoring company calculations indicate the 2022 Tauber team projects averaged $49 million per project savings over three years. The projected savings total was $1.03 billion.

Tauber Alumni Make a Lasting Impact

The Tauber Institute philosophy reverberates across industry through our dynamic community of alumni. Our alumni are at the forefront of advances in logistics, manufacturing, healthcare, technology, and so much more.

Tauber alumni make a positive impact on the practice of operations worldwide, and they give back to the next generation of students. They provide financial support through the annual Tauber Alumni Scholarship awards, routinely offer insightful advice and student mentorship, and have become some of our strongest team project champions. Alumni contributions to the Tauber experience ensure that we continue to be the Leaders & Best in the field of Operations.

“Since I graduated from Tauber, I widened my roles from finance to manufacturing planning, business strategy, and now cofounding our own company in cryptocurrency trading services. Tauber has taught me to be flexible in choices, humble in people, never afraid of making mistakes, and open to new opportunities.”

Lin Hou-Moersdorf (MBA and MSE-IOE ’09) Co-Founder and CEO, MindSynch

“So much of business is trying to make sure that at once you’re keeping in mind all of the little things that when summed up create the positive outcome you’re driving for…. I enjoy strategic and transformational work, but all my roles in those spaces have been preceded by more operational and tactical roles where I learned foundationally how the business operated.”

Christopher Stevens (EGL BSE/MSE-IOE ‘14)  COO, Botrista Technology Inc.

“I signed with my Tauber project sponsor company after graduation. Tauber exposed me to the myriad responsibilities I would have in my new role, and challenged me to juggle multiple priorities while still meeting objectives.”

Ray Gonzalez (MBA ’16) Director of Finance - Component Shaping, SHAPE Technologies Group

“My Tauber experience helped me to push the boundaries of what I thought I was capable of. The program took my previous professional knowledge and strengthened it while also adding new strengths. Experiences and thought patterns that I didn’t realize were valuable before the program are now an integral part of my personal value proposition.”

Jack Bryce (MSCM ’17) Supply Chain Manager, Ball Aerospace

“My Tauber experience was my first professional experience in the climate tech space… I learned about challenges to electrify from a customer’s standpoint, such as not understanding how their electricity bill may go up due to complicated rate structures, or being frustrated with the time it takes to add grid capacity for an electric vehicle charging station onto the grid. I was fascinated with the electric vehicle space and knew I wanted to continue my career in that space.”

Madeline Gilleran (EGL BSE/MSE-ME ’19) Senior Battery Data Analyst, Rivian

Many thanks to the numerous alumni who contribute to the education, employment, and well-being of Tauber students. A special shout out this year to Dave Ostreicher for leading a LeadershipAdvantage Life Planning Workshop, to Yusuf Ghani, Jason Ji, Mary Grace Pellegrini, Kritika Rastogi, Sameer Reddy, Madison Riley, Anna Schmeissing, and Rob Todd for meeting with student groups to discuss career paths, and to our alumni mentors for advising students one-on-one during their 2022 Tauber team projects: Sameer Arora, Andrea Bartels, Dan Bellomo, Madeline Gilleran, Ray Gonzales, Daniel Gross, Anubhav Gupta, Dan Jacobson, Jason Kertayasa, Dameon Li, Yancey May, Deep Patel, Dieon Roger, Rebecca Rutishauser, Charles Su, Sarah Ting, Hanna Vincent, and Dehao Zhang.

Our deepest thanks to the Tauber Alumni Board for their vital support of Tauber community connections and for their commitment to the continuous improvement of the Tauber Institute: Andrew Burgess (TAB President), Jim Beaver, Matt Gibson, Ray Gonzales, and Sarah Ting.

Tauber Industry Advisory Board

The Industry Advisory Board (IAB) ensures the Tauber Institute stays at the forefront of multidisciplinary operations and responds quickly to industry needs. Offering guidance and support consistent with the program’s mission and objectives, the IAB actively assists the institute in achieving its academic and research goals through industry leadership, coopera tion, feedback, and acquisition of financial support.

3M Company, Doug Lane, Global Director

Amazon.com, Inc., Joanne Rzeppa, Vice President, NASC Operations

American Industrial Partners, Danny Davis, Partner

American Securities, David Horing, Managing Director

Beyond Meat, Inc.

The Boeing Company, Jason Clark, Vice President Boeing Commercial Airplane, Fabrication and Supply Chain Engineering

BorgWarner Inc., Christopher J. Lanker, VP and GM, Emissions, Thermal and Turbo Systems, Asia Pacific

Cardinal Health, Inc., Tony Johnson, President Global Products and Supply Chain

ConAgra Brands, Craig Weiss, Vice President of Supply Chain Planning, Programs & Logistics

BLT Ventures LLC, Brian Tauber, CEO Dell Inc., Piyush Bhargava, Vice President Global Operations

The Dow Chemical Company, Jeff Tazelaar, Digital Fulfillment Center Director

DTE Energy, Sharon Pfeuffer, Vice President of Distribution Engineering and Construction

Ford Motor Company, Ron Johnson, Global Director, New Model Programs

General Motors Company, Jorge Ramirez, Global Director and Chief Manufacturing Cybersecurity Officer

Howmet Aerospace, Randall Scheps, President, Howmet Wheel Systems

Infosys Limited, Sriram Panchapakesan, Vice President and Global Head for Engineering Consulting

Kearney Inc., Doug Mehl, Partner

Mayo Clinic, Joe Dudas, Vice Chair, Supply Chain Management

McKinsey & Company, Russell Hensley, Director

Microsoft Corporation, Kristen Bryan, General Manager, Americas Operations Kristen Bryan, National Center for Manufacturing Sciences, Lisa Strama, President & CEO

PepsiCo, Tim Carey, Vice President for Sustainability and Consumer Recycling

Pfizer Inc., Robert Noack, Senior Director, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Drug Product Supply

Steelcase, Tom Dawson, Vice President, Global Operations Services

Target Corporation, Jordan Kettner, Group Vice President

Tauber Enterprises, Joel Tauber, President

Whirlpool Corporation, Mike Cukier, Principal Engineer

Doug Lane 3M Company

Joanne Rzeppa Amazon.com, Inc.

Danny Davis American Industrial Partners

David Horing American Securities

Jason Clark The Boeing Company

Tony Johnson Cardinal Health, Inc.

Christopher J. Lanker BorgWarner Inc.

Craig Weiss ConAgra Brands, Inc.

Brian Tauber BLT Ventures LLC

Piyush Bhargava Dell Inc.

Sharon Pfeuffer DTE Energy

Jeff Tazelaar The Dow Chemical Company

Ron Johnson Ford Motor Company

Jorge Ramirez General Motors Company

Randall Scheps Howmet Aerospace

Doug Mehl Kearney Inc.

Sriram Panchapakesan Infosys Limited

Joe Dudas The Mayo Clinic

Russell Hensley McKinsey & Company

Kristen Bryan Microsoft Corporation

Tim Carey PepsiCo

Lisa Strama National Center for Manufacturing Sciences

Robert Noack Pfizer Inc.

Tom Dawson Steelcase Jordan Kettner Target Corporation

Mike Cukier Whirlpool Corporation

Joel Tauber Tauber Enterprises

Cultivating Thought Leadership Degree Programs Associated with Tauber

Tauber Institute students are admitted through either the College of Engineering or the Stephen M. Ross School of Business. They bring with them significant experience in fields such as product engineering, manufacturing, and consulting. Most Tauber students also have undergraduate training in engineering or other technical fields. They have made a substantial commitment to careers in operations or manufacturing and pursue an education specifically designed to meet the needs of today’s firms.

All Tauber students are enrolled in one of the following degree programs:

Ross School Of Business

BTS (BBA + Tauber + Master of Supply Chain Management)

This 5th year masters program uses the Tauber Institute to bridge the BBA with a Master of Supply Chain Management (MSCM) degree. The STEM-certified, 10-month MSCM program offers a comprehensive curriculum focused on endto-end, global supply chain management.

Master of Business Administration (MBA)

This two-year program prepares students to accept general management leadership positions. The Tauber program includes a sequence of operations management, supply chain, and manufacturing-related engineering courses.

College Of Engineering Engineering Global Leadership Honors (EGL)

This five-year honors program prepares students to enter a variety of firms as engineers, while giving them the necessary management skills to quickly assume business leadership roles. A highly valued element of this program is a cultural concentration in a global region of choice. The EGL program leads to both a BSE and MSE.

Engineering Graduate Programs (EGP)

A graduate-level engineering degree program that, coupled with the Tauber requirements, provides intensive course work in operations and manufacturing technologies paired with business electives courses. EGP students are pursuing MEng, MSE, PhD, or Doctor of Engineering degrees.

The Leaders and Best in Operations

The Spotlight! Team Project Showcase and Scholarship

Competition is one way to introduce yourself and your organization to the Tauber Institute’s supremely qualified candidates. Some recruitment opportunities are listed below:

• Individual interviews with students.

• Permission to post job openings on the institute’s website, accessed by current students as well as our expanding network of 1500+ alumni.

• A connection to career centers and employment events at the College of Engineering and the Ross School of Business.

• Access to the Tauber Institute’s Student Advisory Board, which can assist you in developing networking opportunities such as tailgates, receptions, and speaking engagements.

The Tauber Advantage

Team projects are just one way that Tauber students distinguish themselves from other business and engineering graduates. Tauber programs and courses also enhance their employability:

• The LeadershipAdvantageSM program of learning modules and workshops emphasizes leading and influencing an organization through collaboration, creativity, communication, and analytics.

• The Integrated Product Development course is an experiential, cross-disciplinary course that immerses teams of students from Business, Engineering, Art & Design and Information in an economic competition and competitive product development environment.

• Facility assessments deliver insight into operations and lean manufacturing. Students learn to perform a rapid audit of the state of an operation, judge the relative leanness of the operation, prioritize targets of opportunity for improvements, and develop an action plan to facilitate those improvements.

• The Global Operations Conference brings leaders in industry and academia together to strategize new ways to advance the practice of operations worldwide.

• The Leadership Forum allows Tauber students to learn about ethical leadership directly from current leaders in operations from top global firms.

• The Tauber Leadership Speaker Series invites high-level executives to share insights with students about their careers, the qualities needed in today’s global economy for strong leadership, and tangible steps students can take to achieve excellence in their own career paths.

• Tauber students are encouraged to give back. Each year, on Community Service Day, they apply what they’ve learned to address operations challenges at southeast Michigan nonprofits.

Many Tauber students assume leadership roles in organizing the Global Operations Conference, Leadership Forum, and Tauber Leadership Speaker Series, gaining valuable experience in the complexities of event planning, and developing rapport with the seasoned executives they bring to campus. Student groups plan Tauber’s Community Service Day and organize networking events, and Student Advisory Board members work closely with Tauber leadership to strive for continuous improvement in our own operations.

Target Corporation

Kagan Conrad

Keith Luu Pg.

Grace Vandelac Pg.

AMAZON ROBOTICS

Developing a Strategic Framework for Global Expansion

STUDENT TEAM:

Sadie Cox – EGL (BSE & MSE Industrial and Operations Engineering)

Mustafa Cagil Isik – Master of Business Administration

PROJECT SPONSORS:

Gustavo Frattini – Senior Engineer, Advanced Manufacturing Engineering

Paul Seay – Senior Manager, Advanced Manufacturing Engineering

FACULTY ADVISORS:

Kate Astashkina – Ross School of Business

Peter D. Washabaugh – College of Engineering

Amazon Robotics (AR) is the division of Amazon.com Inc. responsible for developing and deploying automation technology to empower order fulfillment and delivery at speeds previously considered infeasible. Now and in the future, it is considered integral to Amazon’s tradition of customer obsession and ability to dominate in markets across the globe.

The mission of AR is to be a key enabler of Amazon’s growth, rather than a bottleneck for it. AR has historically operated in a reactive manner- both in terms of external demand established by Amazon and internal manufacturing constraints and development. This tradition of reaction has prevented AR from establishing a strategy for long-term operations planning and risk insulation. Black swan events, including the COVID-19 pandemic and war in Europe, paired with growing demand in markets outside of AR’s exclusively American manufacturing base have exposed the need for a more proactive approach to global operations.

To meet this need, AR charged the Tauber team with developing a strategic framework for global expansion assessment accompanied with a roadmap, gap analysis and revision mechanism. The Tauber team conducted 40 informational interviews, incorporated 60 internal, and 50 external data points, and analyzed 200 distinct suppliers and 1,200 individual components. The team’s results impact internal and external stakeholders in more than 20 countries, incorporate precarious geopolitical and macroeconomic trends, and present significant savings in operational efficiency factors.

The final deliverable includes (1) a set of indicators to determine whether to expand manufacturing capabilities for a point in time, (2) a strategic framework to determine where to expand, and (3) final recommendations to materialize the estimated savings in landed cost, lead time and carbon emissions.

Future developments in the Tauber team’s life cycle assessments and supplier value stream maps will introduce an unexampled echelon of visibility into key performance data. In tandem with the implementation of the final recommendations, the Tauber team’s efforts set in motion a more resilient, sustainable, and efficient operational future for AR and Amazon.

AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL PARTNERS - CSC

Modernizing Joist Fabrication Time Standards

STUDENT TEAM:

Zaki Hassan – Master of Business Administration

Matthew Schneider – EGL (BSE in Computer Science & MS in Data Science)

Lavya Upadhyay – MSE in Industrial and Operations Engineers

PROJECT SPONSORS:

David Woodruff – Operations Associate

Michael Martignetti – Vice President of Sales - US Joist & Deck

FACULTY ADVISORS:

Raed Al Kontar – College of Engineering Ari Shwayder – Ross School of Business

American Industrial Program (AIP) is an industrial focused private equity firm that focuses on purchasing and improving industrial companies in North America and Europe. Canam Steel Corporation (CSC) is one of the portfolio companies under AIP that constructs steel joists and decks for use in building construction in the United States. Since the pandemic started, the steel joist industry has grown significantly leading to enormous growth for CSC. CSC has six plants spread across the United States with the Tauber team centered in Point of Rocks, Maryland.

One of the key aspects of the joist industry is the ability to predict the fabrication time for a given joist. CSC currently uses a legacy system, called DESGO, to perform its cost and time estimating function. All software management rests with Canam Group in Canada and is bound by service agreement lasting till 2024. Current DESGO system has three key issues: Visibility, currently a black box with limited knowledge within CSC on its functioning, Accuracy, limited empirical understanding of accuracy and intuitively believed to be low; leading to high markups during bids, and Complexity, the module is overly complex with duplication and unnecessary variables and conditions. CSC’s volatile margins (9-46%) and its potential impact on AIP’s exit prospects, make accurate cost and estimation critical.

To address this problem, the Tauber team replicated the entire cost and time module in an open-source environment. The replicated code can be easily integrated into the CSC’s new ERP system. The team also improved the accuracy of the time standards through time studies and inputs from the CSC manufacturing team; improvement in accuracy ranges from 13-22 percentage points basis different processes. The final steps taken by the Tauber team were to simplify the existing module by recommending changes to eliminate and merge different types of time standards used within the module. The simplified module reduced size by ~20% without any measurable impact on accuracy.

After implementing the various types of improvements in the cost module, the Tauber team estimated the benefits to increase overall production by 1% implying an incremental EBITDA of ~$4.6M; reduce employee turnover and potential impact on EBITDA multiple during exit also an impact. The team also handed over material to the CSC team for integration with the new system along with a potential longterm plan to improve the cost module even further.

AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL PARTNERS - GD ENERGY

Inventory Management Strategy for GD Energy Products

STUDENT TEAM:

Hitoshi Fuchigami – Master of Business Administration

Joshua Kowalski – EGL (BSE in Data Science & MSE in Industrial and Operations Engineering

Daniel Rodriguez Del Bosque – Master of Science in Industrial and Operations Engineering

PROJECT SPONSORS:

Lee Evangelakos – Partner

Brett Walters – GDEP Supply Chain Director

FACULTY ADVISORS:

Izak Duenyas – Ross School of Business

Brian Love – College of Engineering

American Industrial Partners (AIP) is an operationally focused middle-market private equity firm with an investment in GD Energy Products (GDEP), a leading equipment provider to the unconventional oil & gas industry.

The Tauber team was tasked with solving two items that are core to GDEP’s strategic plan.

• The team’s first responsibility was disposing of obsolete materials which amounted to roughly 20% of the total inventory value, while simultaneously creating a process to prevent future accumulation of excess, inactive and obsolete (EIO) materials.

• The team’s second responsibility was to increase the availability of fluid ends, a key revenue driver for the GDEP business, through improved inventory management practices. The updated inventory practices would prevent lost or delayed fluid end sales due to missing small components by optimizing the stocking strategy for these components given a desired service level while also minimizing small component inventory within these parameters.

For the obsolete materials project, the Tauber team coordinated GDEP’s supply chain and finance teams to ensure on-time disposals (following accounting requirements) while developing a process to prevent future EIO inventory accumulation. The Tauber team also conducted a root cause analysis for the current EIO inventory to help inform the organization on what processes to evaluate to prevent such buildups in the future.

The disposal of obsolete materials was carried out on schedule, and recommendations to improve the EIO policy were provided based on scenario analysis along with an algorithm to ensure an efficient and reproducible execution. In addition, the Tauber team’s root cause analysis identified product lifecycle management as an opportunity to prevent further accumulation of EIO and passed that analysis and observation to the relevant stakeholders at GDEP to action.

For the fluid end small components project, the Tauber team worked closely with the Fluid End plant manager, supply chain manager and material buyers to devise an appropriate inventory stocking strategy, then created and integrated into the end users’ daily workstreams a set of tools that regularly designate action items to implement the agreed upon strategy.

The Tauber team found that through optimal allocation of stocking levels, GDEP has the potential to improve fluid end availability and simultaneously reduce fluid end small component inventory. This comes from the segmentation of small components and associated desired service levels based on usage frequency, as well as improved visibility into optimal ordering policies. This value will be realized by diligently executing the designed inventory strategy using the tool developed by the Tauber team.

BOEING - 767

Build Optimization for Military Commercial Derivative Aircraft

STUDENT TEAM:

Danielle DeMarco

– Master of Business Administration

Nicholas McCarthy – EGL (BSE Materials Science and Engineering & MSE Industrial and Operations Engineering)

PROJECT SPONSORS:

Jim Williams – BCA Tanker Program Manager

Scott Peiper – Program and Production Integration Office, Sr. Director

Katie Leikhim – KC-46 Operations Director

Paul Culler – Industrial Engineering Sr. Manager

Vince Brown – Program Affordability Leader

FACULTY ADVISORS:

Luis Garcia-Guzman – College of Engineering David Kaufman – Ross School of Business

The Boeing Company is an industry leader in commercial, defense, and space flight technologies. Boeing operates in a tightly regulated environment for all airplane programs, especially military commercial derivative aircraft that are certified to meet both FAA and military requirements. This environment proves difficult for making changes, especially after production has begun. “Build Optimization” is an initiative to streamline and integrate the production system of Boeing’s KC-46 Tanker program for the United States Air Force and other customers. When designing the production line for the program, key business assumptions needed to be made. Many of these assumptions, such as needing to fly the plane to another site mid-production, did not come to fruition and now leave the production line with critical areas of improvement. Working across Boeing’s commercial and defense business units, the Tauber team managed two critical projects that will broaden the program’s ability to fully capitalize on achieving the optimal build within their joint production system.

Redundancies exist in every manufacturing process. The KC-46 Tanker program is no different. After the commercial team builds the provisional aircraft, the defense team often removes already completed work for final assembly. To eliminate this planned rework, the Tauber team analyzed current state, developed a revised statement of work, got critical buy-in from key stakeholders, and managed the production change. The team laid the foundation and set the precedent for modifying a unique case of production plan changes. Their process will serve as a model for removing other redundancies in the future.

The Tauber team also focused efforts on mapping the full value stream for KC-46 production and identifying potential alternative production sequences. The team evaluated critical path relationships across various operations teams. Ultimately, the team developed a weighted alternatives matrix to arrive at a final recommended strategy for program leadership.

In summary, the Tauber team became subject matter experts in systems level thinking on the KC-46. This knowledge allowed them to address nuanced and technical issues at the part and process levels, as well as at the larger value stream level. Change management and stakeholder engagement were also critical skills that led to project success. The Tauber team was able to make comprehensive recommendations that will shape the future of the KC-46 Tanker program.

SPOTLIGHT!

BOEING - CONFIGURATION

Developing a Strategic Framework for Global Expansion

STUDENT TEAM:

Matt Howard – EGL (BSE & MSE in Industrial and Operations Engineering)

Joey Shoyer – EGL (BSE in Computer Science & MSE in Industrial and Operations Engineering)

PROJECT SPONSORS:

Scott Natario – Associate Technical Fellow –Technical Design

Don Shingler – Senior Manager, BCA Engineering Staffing Integration

FACULTY ADVISORS:

Richard Hughes – College of Engineering

Len Middleton – Ross School of Business

The Boeing Company is a large aerospace manufacturer that has been in operation for over 100 years. Boeing is currently engaged in a digital transformation effort to upgrade their internal product development system to empower engineers to design and build the next generation of revolutionary aircrafts. These new tools will enable drastic reductions in time-to-market, easier and faster regulatory validation, increased first-pass quality, new data insights throughout the product lifetime, and more.

The formation of, and transition to, our future-state Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system is of key focus, as these scaled, complex digital ecosystems hold much of the potential value of digital transformation. Aligning high-level PLM transformation strategy with best practices and lessons learned from other OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturer) will assist Boeing with a transition that is potentially smoother, less costly, and will create a powerful and resilient system in line with Boeing’s values.

The Tauber team was tasked with investigating how to best transition Boeing’s legacy PLM system to the future state based on industry best practices. The team began with internal interviews to understand the current state and approach towards PLM transformation, ultimately completing 52 internal interviews across the enterprise, learning from stakeholders in engineering, IT, BDS, and Dassault Systems, the PLM software vendor. The Tauber team then began external benchmarking and met with 8 companies, including Moog Inc, Parker Aerospace, Mercedes-Benz, GM, and Leon Speakers, as well as a major defense contractor and a large private aviation manufacturer. Finally, the team leveraged internal interview data and industry best practices, success factors, and pitfalls to identify current state risks and develop strategic recommendations to improve the transformation approach.

The Tauber team recommended a value-driven data migration approach, by investing in data health expertise and reusable, standards-based solutions to drive down migration costs. This will also prepare Boeing for the future potential of industrial data sharing. For the PLM system architecture, the team recommended a modular, open design approach to allow the PLM system to evolve and grow over time, rather than stagnate. This will reduce vendor leverage and allow for continuous value generation as the PLM systems changes to best serve its users. To improve stakeholder alignment, the team recommended pulling key domain representatives out of their functions to serve in an exclusively cross-functional capacity. This is key to developing the data governance model necessary for the future-state PLM system. Finally, the team recommended piloting an IT product team with experimental venture-capital-style funding which should incentivize innovation and lower constraints on IT resources.

These recommendations lay out a path for Boeing to regain its status as a market innovator of airplane design through improved digital tools, continuous systems evolution leveraging modern technologies and architecture, better cross-functional collaboration, lower long-term data migration costs, and a funding structure to recognize the crucial role IT plays in enabling product innovation. Boeing can once again define the future of the industry and remain at the cutting edge.

BOEING - QUALITY

Driving Engineering Quality into the Foundation of Business

STUDENT TEAM:

Federico De Geronimo – EGL (BSE / MSE Aerospace Engineering) Ivan Kudrenko – Master of Business Administration Kartik Sriram Kumaravelan – MSE Industrial and Operations Engineering

PROJECT SPONSORS:

Wendi Folkert - Director, Supply Chain Propulsion Strategy

FACULTY ADVISORS:

Prakash Sathe, College of Engineering Young Ro, Ross School of Business

The Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) business unit of Boeing is responsible for the production of commercial airplanes, which are sold to airlines and governments across the world. Historically, BCA has been facing a problem in production: defects that escaped the engineering design process are causing problems down the value stream, negatively impacting Boeing and its customers. These defects are often spotted late in the production process, sometimes causing extensive delays and increased manufacturing cost due to rework. The Tauber team was tasked with investigating these defects and driving improvements into the engineering design process to prevent and mitigate defects further upstream.

To understand the current state of design engineering and identify the prevailing sources of nonconformances, the Tauber team performed quantitative analysis on hundreds of non-conformances and corrective action requests spanning several years. Using Six Sigma tools and data analytics, the team identified chronic issues across commodities that presented the biggest opportunities for improvement. A deeper dive into sources of non-conformances revealed similar potential underlying root causes across programs and functions.

Next, the team performed root-cause analysis to determine the nature of the chronic issues. In order to obtain unbiased and representative information, the team conducted 25+ thorough qualitative interviews with design, liaison, project, quality engineers and integration teams. The team analyzed the qualitative data from interviews to confirm the root cause of issues and identify opportunities for improvement in the current business processes. Communication gaps, heterogeneous corporate culture (variation among teams) and high employee turnover were some of the common high-impact root-causes.

Addressing the root causes leading to the most impactful non-conformances, the team developed a series of recommendations targeting improvements in business processes, corporate culture and measuring quality. First, the team recommended a streamlined root cause and corrective action (RCCA) framework for non-conformances that prioritizes chronic and impactful issues ensuring optimal use of the limited engineering hours available. Second, the team highlighted the opportunity for fostering a culture of quality and continuous improvement by proposing a system to measure and identify gaps in the skillset of teams. The team suggested bridging these gaps through workshops and instructor-led training, and by improving cross-team collaboration and communication. Finally, the team proposed several leading and lagging indicators at tactical and strategic levels that would help measure, quantify, and proactively prevent any lapses in quality, helping engineering teams achieve the company’s long-term goal of improving first pass quality.

These recommendations promote a culture of high quality within Boeing. Optimizing the RCCA process, encouraging constant upskilling and implementing leading indicators of quality would empower all employees from early-career engineers to executives to integrate first pass quality into their daily workstream as well as standard work and potentially bring in tens of millions of dollars in savings because of reduced rework.

2022

BRANDSAFWAY

Optimizing Rental Order Fulfillment for Maximum Profit

STUDENT TEAM:

Joshua Fink – EGL (BSE Computer Science & MSE Applied Data Science)

PROJECT SPONSORS:

Mark Choe – EVP/Chief Technical Officer

John Lucas – Director of Resource Management

FACULTY ADVISORS:

Oleg Gusikhin – College of Engineering

Anyan Qi – Ross School of Business

BrandSafway is the largest provider of construction access rental services globally, providing construction elevators, hoists, and scaffolding at over 650 branches across six continents. The company is expanding quickly, doubling in revenue every five years through acquisitions and organic growth.

In the United States this rapid growth resulted in a network of scaffolding branches acting independently of each other to source rental inventory for customer orders; this decentralization increases the leverage that centralizing decisions have on improving earnings before interests, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) and return on assets (ROA). BrandSafway contracted Tauber to increase profitability by optimizing fulfillment across 130 scaffold rental branches and 8,000+ job sites that collectively manage $1.3b of rental equipment over 50m piece-parts.

By interviewing operations and logistics managers Tauber mapped the as-is order fulfillment and delivery processes. These processes were examined in detail to determine how they connected to BrandSafway’s main financial KPIs - EBITDA and ROA. This analysis identified three primary optimization variables: item availability, logistics cost, and earning potential. Tauber deployed specialized data science and industrial engineering methods to model the network and to maximize profitability through the management of these variables.

Tauber chose a variant of the transshipment problem in operations research to anchor the network model. Demand served as the requirements parameter, while availability, logistics cost, and earning potential were used to weigh the model. Tauber enhanced the existing availability metric by adding forecasting with virtual pooling and NeuralProphet machine learning. The cost metric contained two elements: freight cost and earning potential. Freight cost was determined by combining internal third-party logistics cost data and 122,000 Google Maps API route distances to calculate cost per pound per route. Earning potential was derived from the historical earning rate per dollar of inventory for each branch.

The model was paired with a custom Django web application to form an end-to-end decision support system that provides branches with daily shipping instructions. A change management road map was developed for adoption across the company as BrandSafway plans to scale this solution in the coming years.

The project is projected to save $7.5 million and grow EBITDA by 1.4% over the next three years.

BRUNSWICK CORPORATION

Optimizing Throughput through Connected Operations

STUDENT TEAM:

Victoria Heuschneider – Master of Business Administration

Srishti Senthil – Bachelor of Business Administration / MSCM

PROJECT SPONSORS:

John Cavey – Director of Global Sales, Inventory & Ops Planning

David Blondheim, Jr. – Director, Global Operations Excellence & Advanced Manufacturing

FACULTY ADVISORS:

Debra Levantrosser – College of Engineering

Ravi Anupindi – Ross School of Business

Mercury Marine, a division of Brunswick Corporation, is an industry-leading manufacturer of marine engines, propellers, gauges and controls, and other accessories for recreational boating. Due to a significant increase in demand, Mercury Marine is adding production capacity for gearcase housings, an integral part of boat engines, in the form of two additional automated sanding cells. Mercury Marine leadership asked the Tauber team to improve efficiency of gearcase housing production by increasing average weekly throughput by 9%.

Utilizing the Lean Six Sigma DMAIC methodology, the team developed three recommendations to increase throughput: 1) behavioral changes to start- and end-of-shift activities; 2) lunch time ranges; and 3) coverage between shift changeovers. The first recommendation was piloted for two weeks and results showed an increase in average weekly throughput by 8.3%, which translated to $180K in annual cost savings. To sustain improvement, the team created a visual management system to track operator and department performance and motivate operators to continue improving sanding cell efficiency. By increasing throughput for gearcase housing production, the team alleviated a perceived bottleneck operation and potential risk of over $205M in annual sales by allowing Mercury Marine to expand operational capacity and address continued increases in demand.

DELL TECHNOLOGIES

Improving Online Customer Service Operational Efficiency Using Conversational AI

STUDENT TEAM:

William Wang – Master of Business Administration

Ryan Wu – EGL (BSE & MSE in Computer Science)

PROJECT SPONSORS:

Srishti Gupta – Senior Advisor, Data Science

Sailendu Patra – Senior Data Scientist

FACULTY ADVISORS:

F. Andy Seidl – College of Engineering

Andrew Wu – Ross School of Business

Dell Technologies believes that customer relationships are the ultimate differentiator and the foundation for their success. In the booming industry of e-commerce, where more consumers are shopping online for electronic products, online customer service has become a critical factor in consumers deciding which laptop should they purchase.

Dell always strives to improve customer experiences. An opportunity that Dell has identified is the order return system. In the order return system, users who are unhappy with their purchase contact customer service via an online chat system to schedule a return. This requires specialized knowledge on Dell’s return policy in order to resolve these query requests in a timely manner. Moreover, customers want their issues to be solved as soon as possible. However, maintaining high quality customer service requires high manpower and training costs.

As the Tauber Team, we worked closely with Dell’s Query & Incident Management (QIM) and the data scientists on the Customer Financial Services (CFS) team. The CFS team is a global team of over 1800 agents that handles millions of post-order customer queries per year. Our objective was to help Dell improve the current operational inefficiency and save costs with our deliverables.

The final deliverable consisted of a conversational AI prototype which is built with state-of-art machine learning algorithms based on our research. The model understood the intent of the query request for order returns and generated responses dynamically based on previous conversation. For example, if a user wants to return a product, the user will say “I want to return Product A”, or “Product A is bad, I want to return it”, and nearly infinite other combinations of language. Our model will ask for order information then provide options to return the product.

In 14 weeks, we’ve built the model and demonstrated that it is capable of handling order returns within 5 minutes. Customer queue time will be eliminated, and handling time can be reduced by around 80%, increasing customer satisfaction and retention. Furthermore, we estimated that we can significantly save manpower and training costs.

With further system integration and development, the model can be expanded for handling other tasks such as order exchanges, improving even more efficiency and helping Dell stand out from its major competitors.

FORD MOTOR COMPANY

Advanced Manufacturing Technology Development using Synthetic Data for Machine Vision Quality Inspection

STUDENT TEAM:

Yvonne Lin – EGL (BSE & MSE in Biomedical Engineering)

Christian Zung – EGL (BSE in Mechanical Engineering & MSE in Electrical Engineering)

PROJECT SPONSORS:

Mark Goderis – Technology Manager, Manufacturing Technology Development

Melinda Hunsaker – Technical Specialist, Global Data Insights & Analytics

Frank Maslar – Technical Specialist, Manufacturing Machine Vision Systems

FACULTY ADVISORS:

Lindy Greer – Ross School of Business

Fred Terry – College of Engineering

Ford Motor Company, an automotive company, has been designing, manufacturing, and distributing vehicles worldwide with a strong commitment to quality for over 100 years. Today, Ford employs about 182,000 people globally with revenues exceeding $148 billion for the 12 months ending in June 2022.

Ford’s current manufacturing processes use vision systems running Artificial Intelligence and traditional rules-based image analysis techniques to detect errors. However, these vision systems use computer vision models that train with real images of the assembly line, resulting in a 5-month delay after production launches for the development of the vision system algorithms. During those 5 months of training time, Ford must use manual inspection, which only has an accuracy rate of 80%, to detect defects. Manual inspection is also much slower resulting in less than 20% inspection coverage.

The Tauber team worked with Ford and Microsoft Technical experts to develop a new CAD-based data generation and machine learning framework that uses synthetic images to train models that can detect errors in manufacturing. The focus was on electrical connectors for the Wheel Speed Sensor and Parking Brake, which are critical to customer safety. The models successfully detected connectors in factory settings to determine if they were fully connected, partially connected, or disconnected. The team also created a training module to onboard new engineers in the future such that everyone, including those not experienced with machine learning, can utilize this new technology.

Using synthetic images to train models only requires 92 active Ford engineering hours, a major decrease from the 866 hours required to train with real images. Synthetic image training can also be done without any physical vehicles, so the model can be fully developed prior to production launch and implemented immediately. The vision systems detect defects at a rate of 99.9%, allowing 156,600 vehicles during the original 5-month delay to now be produced at a much higher quality during vehicle launch.

Because defects are detected much earlier, there are cost savings totaling $2.1 million per vehicle launch during those initial 5 months. These savings encompass repairs, image generation and model development, and reduced manual labor. With 5 major vehicle programs per year, and 2 of those being significant enough to benefit from the immediate implementation of machine vision inspection systems, the Tauber team’s work has the potential to directly save Ford $4.12 million annually.

The project is projected to save $7.5 million and grow EBITDA by 1.4% over the next three years.

GENERAL MOTORS COMPANY

Computer Vision for Human Detection in Manufacturing

STUDENT TEAM:

Harsh Hegde – Master of Science in Industrial and Operations Engineering

Shunsuke Koyama – Master of Business Administration

PROJECT SPONSORS:

Francisco Guzman – Group Manager, Manufacturing Engineering - Vehicle Systems

FACULTY ADVISORS:

W. Monroe Keyserling – College of Engineering

Sanjeev Kumar – Ross School of Business

General Motors (GM) seeks to continuously enhance safeguards, reduce downtime, and improve cost efficiency on automated manufacturing cells by utilizing new technologies. One major issue is the hard stops of robots which cause downtime. When a robot is powered-off by a presence sensor fault, a hard stop occurs which requires time to recover. These hard stops are triggered by safeguarding systems. The hard stops potentially damage the robots and could cause longer downtime. The Tauber team worked with the GM Manufacturing Engineering (ME) Vehicle Systems Team to evaluate how human detection technologies in manufacturing cells could improve production efficiency.

With thousands of robotics applications worldwide in use, the need for safety and collaboration with humans is an innovation necessity. The objective of this project was to evaluate the use of computer vision and artificial intelligence for safeguards on automated manufacturing cells. The current safeguarding technologies in the cells require a decent amount of setup and maintenance. The use of a new 3D computer vision technology has the potential to simplify the setup, improve human-machine collaboration, and avoid the associated downtime when humans are inside the range of a robot motion either by entering a fenced cell or activating electronic presence-sensing guards.

Current methods for protecting humans from automated tools and robotics limit the possibility of human collaboration, therefore restricting the opportunities to improve productivity. In the past few years, human detection technologies for safeguarding workspaces had been an interest for GM, but innovative technologies for achieving better productivity did not exist. In 2021, the ME Vehicle Systems team learned that the new computer vision technology received safety certification and was available to apply in manufacturing processes. It was the right timing for GM to evaluate applying the 3D computer vision technology in their manufacturing cells.

To assist ME Vehicle Systems’ efforts to enhance human-machine operations, our team assessed existing facility/manufacturing cells, collected data, analyzed the human-detection technologies, and evaluated them. Our findings showed that implementation of the computer vision system was not feasible in the body shops at General Motor assemblies as the payback period exceeds 30 years. However, further analysis showed that the payback period at collaborative cells in the body shop was approximately 2.2 years, this makes the implementation of the computer vision feasible at these locations. We estimate the savings to be $18K per collaborative cell in which the computer vision system is implemented. To validate this estimation, we recommended that GM pilots the computer vision technology at Spider Load Cells in the body shop at the Fairfax assembly. To assist GM in making decisions regarding the implementation of computer vision technology in the future, we designed a cost-benefit decision-making tool. The tool assesses the feasibility to implement computer vision technologies in different robotic and human collaboration scenarios and calculates the payoff period at any GM facility. Using this tool and our recommendations, GM should strive to increase human-robot collaboration and interaction in the manufacturing plants as it would increase their production capacity and make the manufacturing setups more efficient.

GOPUFF COMPANY - MANUFACTURING

Micro-fulfillment Center (MFC) Inbound Process Standardization

STUDENT TEAM:

Molly Barstow – MBA & MS in Environment and Sustainability

Anya Kothari – MSE in Industrial and Operations Engineering

Sharan Manjunath – MSE Industrial and Operations Engineering

PROJECT SPONSORS:

Ryan Somplasky – Senior Program Manager, Process Engineering

FACULTY ADVISORS:

Lennart Baardman – Ross School of Business Max Li – College of Engineering

Gopuff is a vertically integrated platform that delivers daily essentials to customers within minutes across 1,000 cities in the United States and Europe. Their vision is to become the world’s go-to solution for immediate everyday needs. The company is headquartered in Philadelphia, PA and runs its North American operations out of 375+ micro-fulfillment centers (MFCs) and three distribution centers (DCs) supported by 10K+ operational associates and delivery partners. Critical to its operations is the inbound process: the process of accepting new inventory in an MFC, consisting of three steps–Arrive, Receive, and Put Away. Gopuff recently completed standardization processes for two of its three steps in inbound: Arrive and Receive. The third and final step, Put Away, had not been standardized.

The Tauber team was brought in to create the Put Away standardization guidelines and to improve upon the Arrive and Receive standards. To understand the pain points of the process, the team spent a week learning and doing Arrive, Receive, and Put Away and two weeks implementing Arrive and Receive standards. The on-site experiences led them to developing two key documents: (1) an implementation guide for Arrive and Receive and (2) Put Away standards. In addition, a few key areas of opportunity within the inbound space were identified.

The Tauber team analyzed the data and statistical significance for four inbound process implementations. Based on this analysis, labor cost savings per unit received averaged $0.04. Under a scenario where these process improvement recommendations scale to Gopuff’s entire North American network by mid-2025, we estimate a cumulative labor cost savings of just over $7M. This estimation relies on a conservative estimate that unit volume will increase 20% per year (the growth from 2020 to 2021 was over 300%). It also assumes the implementation will roll out to 50% of MFCs by mid-2024 and 100% of MFCs by mid2025.

SPOTLIGHT!

GOPUFF COMPANY - NETWORK

Network Topology Project

STUDENT TEAM:

Tarek El Bsat – EGL (BSE & MSE Industrial and Operations Engineering)

Grace Kenney – Master of Business Administration

Artemis Siavelis – EGL (BSE in Computer Science Engineering & MSE Industrial and Operations Engineering)

PROJECT SPONSORS:

Archis Awate – Senior Manager, Space Planning and Optimization

Charan Lalwani – Director, Operations and Analytics Insights

Kerry Person – Vice President, Supply Chain and Operations

FACULTY ADVISORS:

Roman Kapuscinski – Ross School of Business

Lei Ying – College of Engineering

Gopuff is a delivery service that provides everyday essentials to customers within minutes across the United States and Europe. The concept was born in 2013 in Philadelphia and began as a way to get late night snacks, such as chips and candy, delivered. Since then, the company has grown to distribute more than snacks, expanding into categories such as alcohol, home essentials and fresh food items. Gopuff operates roughly 400 micro-fulfillment centers (MFCs) with more than 10,000 associates and delivery personnel nationwide. In addition to these MFCs, the company currently has 3 distribution centers in the US as well as several third-party distributors to service these MFCs.

Given Gopuff’s rapid growth and current distribution network layout and low internal distribution penetration, the Tauber Team was tasked to develop a go forward network design strategy using forecasted growth. The team evaluated several external softwares based on capabilities after several tool demonstration meetings and price negotiations. The team landed on BlueYonder’s Supply Chain Strategist and mapped the current state of the distribution network in depth and modeled several potential business scenarios to create a more optimized network. With the goal to decrease supply chain costs at Gopuff, the team analyzed where to position distribution nodes (distribution centers, micro distribution centers, etc) based on a cost benefit analysis of several scenarios with varying inputs and constraints.

Using this software, the team was able to make recommendations on optimal network scenarios given potential changes in customer demand and strategy of Gopuff in the future. In addition to network changes, the team also developed a go-forward plan to continue this work beyond that of the internship. The team recommends using their framework to build an in-house solution for network topology, making it more flexible and able to track more granularity.

MICROSOFT CORPORATION

Modern Work CSU Digital Transformation

STUDENT TEAM:

Amit Tiwari – EGL (BSE and MSE Industrial and Operations Engineering)

Ryo Yoshikawa – Master of Business Administration

PROJECT SPONSORS:

Pradeep Bethi – Director, WW Customer Success Strategy

Matt Hall – Director, Customer Success Leader, Modern Work

FACULTY ADVISORS:

Ruslan Mormot – Ross School of Business

Prakash Sathe – College of Engineering

Microsoft Corporation Modern Work (MW) business unit sells and increases customer usage of Microsoft 365 licenses. One of the most important success metrics for Modern Work is customer license usage rate, which is the rate at which customers use the licenses after purchase. Every year, the Modern Work Strategy Team spends two months creating solution plays to help employees (field members) maintain the growth of its business. Within solution plays, there are checklists intended to guide field members on how to sell a product and how to get customers to use their licenses more often. Checklists include a set of activities that employees can follow along with the roles associated with each step and helpful materials they can use when engaging with the customer. The checklist, however, was not utilized effectively by the field.

The Tauber Team was tasked to help understand how checklists are used by field members and recommend how to increase the utilization of checklists. The Team conducted field interviews to further understand why the usage of checklists is low and performed data analysis to see how checklists are utilized by the fields. The team recommended the Strategy Team to implement a two-part solution: First, improve and merge existing data sets to see how checklists are utilized by field members. Second, develop a Teams app to improve field members’ accessibility to checklists. The proposed solutions can increase the awareness of the checklist for the field, leading to $85 million worth of savings per year.

MILLERKNOLL

Inventory Optimization Model Project

STUDENT TEAM:

Abhinav Khanna – MS Industrial and Operations Engineering

Ashley E. Martinez – Master of Business Administration & MS Environment and Sustainability

PROJECT SPONSORS:

Eric Crouthamel – Vice President Operations Transformation and Integration

Richard Scott – Chief Manufacturing and Operations Officer, Global Operations

FACULTY ADVISORS:

Robert Inman – College of Engineering

Eric Svaan – Ross School of Business

MillerKnoll is striving to make Herman Miller and Knoll a unified enterprise that caters to its customers in a cost-efficient and effective way. Many decisions are made in silos, but MillerKnoll is working to adopt standardized practices. Currently, inventory is managed locally at each site, often on different software systems. Today, the global contract business holds approximately $225M in inventory with 50% accounting for raw material inventory. MillerKnoll has a $10M inventory reduction goal in the coming fiscal year (June 2022 through May 2023). This has jumpstarted the need to manage inventory more efficiently and effectively around the globe.

To achieve this goal, MillerKnoll sought support from the Tauber Institute for Global Operations to develop an inventory optimization model. The model focuses on component part inventory management practices using total costs, lead time, demand variability, average usage, and supplier reliability. The model also provides a methodology for comparing current inventory levels against plan, as well as ideal inventory levels. The initial version of the model is limited to raw material inventory at East Greenville, a legacy Knoll location, but is designed for easy expansion to other locations in the future. A user process diagram outlining the analyses and decisions complement the model. The team has also provided a list of 34 additional recommendations to reduce raw material inventory.

It is recommended MillerKnoll begin use of the inventory optimization model immediately and implement the top three additional recommendations. As a result, we estimate MillerKnoll will save $24.6 M (approximately 79% reduction), freeing up working capital for other uses.

NATIONAL CENTER FOR MANUFACTURING SCIENCE

Modeling Technology Transition

STUDENT TEAM:

Braden L. Crimmins – EGL (BSE & MSE Computer Science)

Katie Wells – Master of Business Administration

PROJECT SPONSORS:

Chris Fick – Strategic Communications Project Manager

Jon Riley – Senior Vice President, Digital Enterprise & Initiatives

FACULTY ADVISORS:

Amy Cohn – College of Engineering

Mohamed Mostagir – Ross School of Business

The National Center for Manufacturing Science (NCMS) is a cross-industry technology development consortium dedicated to the modernization and advancement of the United States manufacturing base. Through close collaboration with its world-class member organizations, NCMS is able to develop and demonstrate innovative technologies efficiently and reliably, reducing cost and risk.

NCMS is dedicated to delivering continuous value for its members and partners, as reflected by its long record of developing and demonstrating new technologies. Our project was designed to support this effort by evaluating the many complex factors that best supported delivery of critical innovations within government and industry sectors. This work will facilitate integration at key partner organizations and support future efforts to bring promising technologies to scale.

The 2022 Tauber team was tasked with developing a model that defines, describes, and supports prediction of successful technology transition. This will help NCMS capture and leverage the knowledge of experts in technology transition – internal and external – in a way that supports its strategic objectives and diversifies its sources of value.

The model we developed describes technology transitions with respect to their progress along seven key dimensions, each of which can be adapted to specific transition contexts for enhanced robustness. The organization of these dimensions reflects insights from integrators and innovators alike, and from sectors including industry, government, academia, and institutes or nonprofits.

Stakeholders inside NCMS and in key partner organizations have engaged in extensive pressure testing of this model, and several have expressed interest in adopting it or further tailoring it to their use case. We plan that it will soon be deployed as a transition tool, bringing value to NCMS and contributing to the knowledge of the broader technology transition community as a whole.

UK

PFIZER, INC.

Toward 100% Equipment Reliability at Sandwich, UK

STUDENT TEAM:

Kris Ivanov – Master of Business Administration

Jeremy Segal – EGL (BSE & MSE Industrial and Operations Engineering)

PROJECT SPONSORS:

Ross MacRae – Senior Director, Drug Product Supply

Paul Stuart – Vice President, Drug Product Supply

Sue Upson – Senior Manager, Drug Product Supply

FACULTY ADVISORS:

Paul Clyde – Ross School of Business

Luis Garcia-Guzman – College of Engineering

PFIZER Inc. is one of the world’s premier biopharmaceutical companies, delivering breakthroughs that change patients’ lives through vaccines and medicines for immunology, oncology, cardiology, endocrinology, and neurology. These innovations are brought to patients through rigorous drug discovery and clinical trials that on average can span 10 years and cost billions in research and development (R&D) costs. With goals of delivering 25 breakthroughs that treat 225 million patients by 2025, Pfizer is focused on further strengthening its R&D pipeline by redefining delivery timelines, re-evaluating candidate drug priorities, and investing in new technologies to improve capabilities across its network. To accelerate molecule-to-market delivery and meet patients’ needs, Pfizer recognized the opportunity to improve capacity and reliability within the solid dose manufacturing unit (SDM) of its Sandwich, UK facility.

Sandwich SDM plays a vital role in supporting Phase II and III patient trials, which occupy a critical part of the end-to-end drug development timeline. The site has always been uncompromising in its commitment to reliably deliver excellent quality products to patients enrolled in Pfizer’s clinical trials. The leading indicator for improving clinical supply and on-time and in-full delivery is schedule adherence, which could be improved through a variety of initiatives. The majority of the site’s schedule adherence impacts in 2021 were caused by equipment reliability and software issues, directly linked to Sandwich SDM’s unique operating model of manufacturing high-value, high-complexity low-volume clinical batches.

The 2022 Tauber Team focused on improving equipment reliability and overall manufacturing capacity to minimize unplanned downtime by 75%, by holistically addressing activities within breakdown prevention and response, and innovation to build the factory of the future. Based on an analysis of current state operations, key improvement opportunities were defined across five distinct project areas, including performance tracking, maintenance scheduling, spare parts management, breakdown response and Industry 4.0 progress.

The most impactful recommendations were implemented toward the completion of the project, including a newly developed downtime tracker, equipment reliability and breakdown prediction tool, scheduling rationale for preventative placebo-material manufacturing runs, qualitative classification of spare parts, and an overhauled cross-functional team response process to equipment failures. Combined, the team’s top recommendations enable nearly 50 p.p. of the total 75 p.p. unplanned downtime reduction goal, freeing up nearly 3,900 FTE hours to focus on value-add activities, and empowering a 25% increase in manufacturing capacity. The already implemented improvements, together with remaining longerterm recommendations, will conservatively save Pfizer a total of $3.79M on an annual basis through increased uptime, reduced outsourcing expenses, and saved labor costs. These projections were derived from current state value-stream mapping, over 30 stakeholder interviews across the global drug product supply organization, piloted and implemented solutions, and existing costing data. The high-value recommendation results were confirmed through multiple pilots conducted over a 5-week timeline that tested the feasibility, validity, and value of proposed solutions pre and post go-live.

These impacts will enable Sandwich SDM to complete more batches and reliably deliver more clinical products every year. Consequently, this will empower Pfizer to accelerate molecule-to-market timelines and support the company’s mission of delivering breakthroughs that change patients’ lives.

PFIZER, INC.

Optimizing Material Handling and Storage in Pfizer’s Clinical Supply Chain

STUDENT TEAM:

Isabella Hartman – EGL (BSE Biomedical and MSE Industrial and Operations Engineering)

Katerina Siavelis – EGL (BSE Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering and MSE Industrial and Operations Engineering)

PROJECT SPONSORS:

Laddie Grim – Director, Drug Product Supply Global Materials Management

Petra Romano Lieber – Drug Product Supply

FACULTY ADVISORS: Tom Buchmueller –Ross School of Business Grant Kruger – College of Engineering

Pfizer, Inc. is one of the largest biopharmaceutical companies in the world, reaching 1.4 billion patients in 2021 with its medicines and vaccines. As of July 2022, Pfizer has 104 compounds in its clinical pipeline and has set the ambitious goal of achieving 25 therapeutic breakthroughs by 2025. This goal requires expanded clinical trial volume and clinical manufacturing throughput, which would not be possible without support from a highly complex and robust clinical supply chain and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) materials management operations.

Pfizer Global Materials Management (GMM) manages and ensures the availability of clinical supplies for all development work, clinical manufactures, and patient studies across Pfizer’s dynamic global supply chain. GMM is responsible for thousands of orders per year, 10% of which have a 3 day or less turnaround time, requiring agility as a delayed shipment can have a fatal patient impact and extend time to market for a clinical program.

With a rapidly expanding portfolio, Pfizer’s demand for GMM resources has grown significantly in recent years, and GMM has undertaken two expansion projects to triple its current storage capacity. They have engaged the 2022 Tauber team to conduct an end-to-end analysis of material handling and storage operations in Groton, implement process improvements, and recommend an optimized material storage framework in preparation for this expansion.

After thoroughly reviewing warehouse management literature, conducting stakeholder interviews, learning Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and creating a detailed process map, the Tauber team developed a class-based material storage framework that organizes products primarily by turnover. To facilitate the rollout of this model, the team created a digital dashboard and an implementation and maintenance plan to be used by the warehouse operations team. Their system decreases order picking travel distance by 71% and technician time by 31%, allowing for a 44% increase in capacity to accept new orders. These improvements were validated by a custom-built simulation, and they are particularly significant as the impact will only increase year over year as GMM grows. To further maximize new and existing warehouse capacity, the team introduced and piloted three process improvement initiatives focusing on repurposing expired material for non-clinical manufacturing use and streamlining multiple material reordering processes.

Through the implementation of the Tauber initiatives, GMM is now able to support up to 20 more shipments per year and reallocate nearly 100 hours of technician time to material consolidation and other processes that may otherwise require overtime, increasing capacity and enabling better support of Pfizer’s clinical supply chain. By reducing resource waste, the 2022 Tauber Project not only generated annual cost savings of $1.0M, but also supported GMM’s journey into a more sustainable business model as part of Pfizer’s commitment to achieve the Net-Zero Standard across its value chain by 2040. Repurposing initiatives are reducing Pfizer’s material waste by over 24000 kg and 2.25M units over 3 years, and optimized picking routes are minimizing emissions from material transport. With these improvements, GMM is aligning with Pfizer’s long-term objectives and enabling “Breakthroughs that change patients’ lives”.

STANLEY BLACK & DECKER, INC.

Advanced Manufacturing - Warehouse Optimization

STUDENT TEAM:

Meredith Maimoni – MBA & MS Environment & Sustainability

Arvind Kumar Murugesan Rajamallika – MSE Industrial and Operations Engineering

Arun Palaniappan – MSE Industrial and Operations Engineering

PROJECT SPONSORS:

Nathan Dietrich – Director of Advanced Manufacturing Engineering

Moses Pezarkar – Advanced Manufacturing Engineer

FACULTY ADVISORS:

Christian Lastoskie – Civil and Environmental Engineering

Vijay Pandiarajan – Ross School of Business

Stanley Black & Decker (SBD) is a $15.6B Fortune 500 company with 60,767 employees operating in 150 facilities in 60 countries. SBD is the world’s largest tools and storage company and a leading provider of engineered fastening systems. Stanley Engineered Fastening (SEF) is part of SBD’s $2.3B industrial division. SEF manufactures and supplies over five billion fasteners annually to North American automotive and industrial manufacturers.

This project combines Lean Six Sigma with smart factory technology to elevate operational excellence at SEF’s North American manufacturing and distribution sites. Distribution center inefficiencies limit SEF’s ability to meet customers’ on-time delivery (OTD) expectations, compromising SEF’s competitive advantage. As part of the continuous effort to improve OTD, the Tauber team was tasked with developing: 1) three major solutions to significantly improve warehouse operations with a minimum value of $540K and payback within three years, 2) one quick win to build trust with warehouse staff, and 3) a horizontal deployment strategy to scale all recommendations across the 14 SEF distribution centers.

While developing the solutions and quick wins, the Tauber team interviewed 58 stakeholders, performed more than 100 gemba walks, executed time studies, and developed a value stream map. Picking was identified as the primary bottleneck and the single most critical lever to improve OTD. Thus, the Tauber team focused on improving picking and the closely related back-end staging process and delivered four key solutions.

First, the Tauber team optimized inventory storage throughout the warehouse by moving fast-moving goods to the front of the racks and slow-moving goods to the back using ABCD slotting analytics. This solution improved picks per day by 56%. Second, the Tauber team introduced “mieruka” by designing digital dashboards to visualize rack vacancies. These dashboards provided never-before-seen information about rack utilization and cycle count accuracy and simultaneously improved the putaway process by reducing the dispersion of each SKU throughout the warehouse. This improved cycle count accuracy from 83% to 100% and reduced dispersion rate, further increasing picking velocity. Third, the Tauber team developed a sorting algorithm that optimized HiLo travel within a pick list and deployed the algorithm in JD Edwards (JDE), SEF’s enterprise resource planning system. This solution reduced HiLo movement waste by 54%. Finally, the Tauber team secured a quick win by incorporating “mieruka” at the staging area, improving visual management through physical signposts to designate pallets for specific carriers, reducing carrier turnaround time by 36%.

The Tauber team validated their lean optimizations and advanced manufacturing applications through ProModel simulation, applied analytics, and four warehouse pilots. To scale and institutionalize these solutions, the Tauber team produced detailed work instructions and trained warehouse staff on the new processes. When scaled across SEF, these improvements are projected to generate savings of $4.8 million annually and improve OTD from 91.2% to 98.4%.

STONERIDGE, INC.

Stoneridge North America Commercial Vehicle Product Life Cycle Management

STUDENT TEAM:

Timothy Breckwoldt – EGL (BSE & MSE Industrial and Operations Engineering)

Abhishek Ramachandran – MSE Industrial and Operations Engineering

PROJECT SPONSORS:

Roger Kimes – Head of Global Manufacturing Engineering

Kurt Garcia – Product Line Manager - Electronic Control Units

FACULTY ADVISORS:

Steven Skerlos – College of Engineering

Chris Rider – Ross School of Business

Project Clean Sweep was originally launched to turn the North American Service Parts Business back to profitability. This report covers both the team’s analyses and recommendations for Project Clean Sweep as well as an implementation guide for future projects.

Over the course of implementing Project Clean Sweep for Stoneridge Electronics North America, the team selected 25 service part product lines near the end of their lifecycles. By breaking down the cost structures of these product lines, implementing price increases, and obsoleting parts with low demand, the electronics service parts business:

• grew 2.5x in annual revenue and achieved 50% gross margin

• obsoleted about 35% of the part numbers involved, simplifying operations

The team went on to holistically evaluate each remaining product line to make a sell/obsolete/maintain decision. Our analysis led to the recommendation that Stoneridge pursue a sale of all remaining product lines.

The team estimated that the project will have a $21M impact at Stoneridge Electronics North America over the next three years, which includes cash inflow from the sales of the lines, operational cost savings, and potential cost avoidances into component redesign.

The next step for Stoneridge is to carry out similar projects at other manufacturing locations. To facilitate such projects, the team has come up with an implementation guide. The guide breaks down a 5-step process from identifying product lines that need improvements to forming and carrying out the strategy of sell/obsolete/maintain. With the project having such a significant impact in North America, the team firmly believes that this document lays the foundation for focused turnaround initiatives within Stoneridge on a global scale. Such initiatives will change the way that the organization views and handles its service business.

SPOTLIGHT! 2022

TARGET CORPORATION

Improving Inbound Freight Throughput

STUDENT TEAM:

Kagan Conrad – EGL (BSE & MSE in Industrial and Operations Engineering)

Keith Luu – Masters of Business Administration

Grace Vandelac – EGL (BSE & MSE in Industrial and Operations Engineering)

PROJECT SPONSORS:

Heath Holtz – Sr. VP of Field Operations

Slade Lewis – Director of Process Excellence

Arthur Valdez – EVP & Chief Supply Chain Logistics Officer

FACULTY ADVISORS: David Chesney – College of Engineering Lisa Pawlik – Ross School of Business

Target Corporation is a U.S. based retailer that provides high-quality, on-trend merchandise at attractive prices, generating $106B in revenue in 2021 through online and in-store sales. Nearly all of Target’s revenues are generated within the U.S. Over 75% of the U.S. population lives within 10 miles of a Target store. Target maintains both small-format stores and SuperTarget hypermarkets, totaling 1931 locations in the U.S. and employing over 400,000 team members over 20 offices globally. The company expects to open 30 new stores this year alone, the majority of which are small-format stores.

Additionally, Target has a vast network, receiving goods from over 8000 vendors and operating 46 regional distribution centers (RDCs) which deliver goods directly to stores and indirectly serve Target. com guests through fulfillment center (FC) replenishment. Target competes with traditional and internet retailers, including department stores, off-price general merchandise retailers, wholesale clubs, categoryspecific retailers, drug stores, supermarkets, direct-to-consumer brands, and other forms of retail commerce.

In 2022, Target expects to receive 742M cartons through its inbound automated receiving technology (ART) process. Due to growth forecasts, Target needs inbound throughput capacity to increase from the current maximum of 31.2M cartons per week (achieved during 2021’s peak season) to 38.2M cartons per week for 2023 – an increase of 22.4%. Since expanding total infrastructure quickly enough to align with demand growth is remarkably costly and requires extended timelines, it is crucial to unlock efficiencies in the existing network to expand inbound capacity.

This project sought to identify and validate opportunities to improve existing automation in ART and subsequent inbound throughput in the overall network. Specifically, the Tauber intern team focused on inputs and processing methods within ART. The team defined a working model that informs future automation solutions, such as Inbound Throughput Module (ITM), while also leveraging existing data to improve current ART challenges. Solutions included a technology to optimally pace the unload of freight based on the numbers of unique SKUs within a trailer as well as a method of removing wasted movement when processing cartons and building pallets.

These improvements are estimated to bring Target an annual labor cost savings of $64.3M over the next three years. Additionally, the team identified that the maximum potential opportunity for improvement could result in an additional 468.4M cartons of throughput capacity per year.