Developing flexibility in assembly environments

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; and, (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2007.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Dolak, Eric J
Other Authors: David Hardt and Jeremie Gallien.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2007
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/39727
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author Dolak, Eric J
author2 David Hardt and Jeremie Gallien.
author_facet David Hardt and Jeremie Gallien.
Dolak, Eric J
author_sort Dolak, Eric J
collection MIT
description Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; and, (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2007.
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spelling mit-1721.1/397272022-01-28T18:08:11Z Developing flexibility in assembly environments Dolak, Eric J David Hardt and Jeremie Gallien. Leaders for Manufacturing Program. Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering Sloan School of Management Mechanical Engineering. Sloan School of Management. Leaders for Manufacturing Program. Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; and, (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 77-80). Manufacturing flexibility has been a topic of interest for both researchers and practitioners for several decades. Despite the amount of attention that flexibility receives, it remains a nebulous concept to those in industry trying to develop flexibility within their firms. This thesis attempts to act as a guide to practitioners, bridging the gap between the idealistic academic literature and the pragmatic concerns that are encountered when actually implementing flexibility projects. It is very difficult to develop recommendations for the implementation of flexibility projects from outside of an organization. Therefore this thesis introduces two separate flexibility implementation case studies that were performed while the author was employed by the firm in the case study. Through offering this unique perspective, it becomes apparent that without knowing the cultural and political climate of the firm, poor recommendations can be made. Often implementation failure can be traced back to this root cause. Flexibility is often thought of as a manufacturing problem. While flexibility is an important tool in combating increased uncertainty and variability within the manufacturing environment, there is great opportunity to utilize flexibility in other environments as well. (cont.) In particular flexibility can be a key source of competitive advantage if properly applied to the launch of new products. Typically most organizations divide the manufacturing and design functions through organizational boundaries resulting in vastly disparate entities. Therefore increased focus around the hand-off between these two functions, particularly with respect to flexibility can provide significant opportunities. by Eric J. Dolak. M.B.A. S.M. 2007-12-07T16:13:36Z 2007-12-07T16:13:36Z 2007 2007 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/39727 180936188 eng M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 80 p. application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Mechanical Engineering.
Sloan School of Management.
Leaders for Manufacturing Program.
Dolak, Eric J
Developing flexibility in assembly environments
title Developing flexibility in assembly environments
title_full Developing flexibility in assembly environments
title_fullStr Developing flexibility in assembly environments
title_full_unstemmed Developing flexibility in assembly environments
title_short Developing flexibility in assembly environments
title_sort developing flexibility in assembly environments
topic Mechanical Engineering.
Sloan School of Management.
Leaders for Manufacturing Program.
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/39727
work_keys_str_mv AT dolakericj developingflexibilityinassemblyenvironments