Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8
Filtering by
- All Subjects: Supply Chain Management
Description
This is a creative thesis project on the topic of the third party logistics industry, and the improvements that are possible through the implementation of goods to person technologies. The scope of the project entails the relationship between Company X, which is a third party logistics provider, and Company Y, a major toy retailer. This thesis identifies current trends for the third party logistics industry such as rising operating costs and average savings achieved through these business relationships. After identifying the negative trends that Company X is vulnerable to such as high human resources costs, and cost of quality issues. Given the findings derived from industry data, a final recommendation was settled on to improve productivity and ultimately reduce the use of temporary labor for Company X. The implementation of a goods to person technology solution provides the opportunity to reduce hours of operation, man hours, as well as direct and indirect costs such as labor. Research has proven that firms operating in the retail industry rely heavily on temporary labor to handle the seasonal demand brought by the holidays, thus this recommendation could be applied to a variety of operations. The data compiled throughout this thesis have major implications for the third party logistics industry and achieving long term profitability in operations management.
ContributorsFonseca, Tanner (Author) / Printezis, Antonios (Thesis director) / Kellso, James (Committee member) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
New Venture Group, a student-run consulting organization at ASU, collaborated with representatives from Intel Corporation to determine current best supplier management practices in the area of capital equipment procurement. The New Venture Group team accomplished this goal by completing the following deliverables: (1) Research and consolidate best practices for managing capital equipment suppliers. (2) Interview suppliers of capital equipment in the semiconductor industry to understand their motivators. (3) Examine top supply chain companies that utilize capital equipment manufacturers within their procurement systems. (4) Gather data and knowledge in conjunction with Intel Corporation's current practices to improve the effectiveness of the company's supplier management techniques regarding capital equipment manufacturers. The thesis report outlines the key insights and recommendations that our team extracted from the research that we performed. Our team analyzed peer-reviewed journal articles, conducted interviews with suppliers of capital equipment to semiconductor manufacturers, and surveyed buyers at top companies to reach important key insights. We then used these insights to develop the following strategies to improve Intel's capital equipment supplier management structure: All Suppliers 1. Allow high-performance suppliers to select one reward from an established portfolio of incentives. 2. Increase measurement frequency for specific metrics. 3. Use collaborative two-way measurement with a corresponding balanced scorecard. Key Suppliers of Critical Products 4. Conduct gap analysis through supplier self-assessments. 5. Implement collaborative target pricing. 6. Delegate an Ombudsman. 7. Create a value map to determine the strengths and incentivize collaboration. 8. Create comparison charts comparing supplier technological competencies versus Intel's product developments. 9. Establish a systematized product development process and strategic sourcing strategy that supports the continuation of Moore's Law.
ContributorsSantiago, Bryce (Co-author) / Chen, Jenny (Co-author) / Chang, Karen (Co-author) / Baldridge, Stephen (Co-author) / Laub, Jeffrey (Thesis director) / Brooks, Daniel (Committee member) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor, Contributor) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
This research focuses and discusses on the Supply Chain process within the mental health industry and its impact on the center for health empowerment education employment recovery. Our first approach was to research background information on mental health sector. With 115 billion dollars on mental health treatment investment annually nationwide, many citizens continues to struggle to find help. Due to such a complex structure of specific industry, we needed to focus more specifically, Arizona. Even within Arizona, we chose one organization to discuss their complex supply chain logistic issues. Through analysis of beneficiaries, technology system, finance management, employer, many educational programs, we were able to identify possible improvements. Through utilizing Supply Chain concepts, my co-author and I came up with few solutions that can greatly benefit the organization.
ContributorsChoi, Jennifer (Co-author) / Malakyan, Sonya (Co-author) / Eftekhar, Mahyar (Thesis director) / Maltz, Arnold (Committee member) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
The story of Moneyball is an informative tale. It is the true story of the Oakland Athletics baseball team in the 2002 season who managed to not only compete with teams who had nearly three times the payroll size and all the star players, but also won an American League record 20 games in a row. Their manager, Billy Beane, was able to achieve this by using sabermetrics, a newly invented term that describes the advanced statistics and metrics used to judge a player's contribution to the success of the team over traditional statistics and gut feeling, to draft and trade for undervalued players to create a competitive team under his small-market budget. This story is well known as a best-selling novel by Michael Lewis and later a film by the same name. Clearly it was successful in the field of baseball, but can it be used in other business industries? The idea of sabermetrics, or finding more information to predict the future of a player is very similar to the ideas of Information Measurement Theory (IMT) as theorized by Dr. Dean Kashiwagi, a professor at Arizona State University. The goal of this paper is to use Moneyball as a narrative to show how applying the concepts of IMT to businesses could allow them to better predict their performance and the future of their industry. Moreover, these same ideas can predict if the leadership of the company will be successful by analyzing their personal characteristics. This paper will act as a guide for businesses to start following the concepts of IMT and to better analyze themselves and their industry to increase performance and reduce stressful decision-making.
ContributorsKent, Austin (Author) / Kashiwagi, Dean (Thesis director) / Kashiwagi, Jacob (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
The purpose of this paper is to identify a strategy and list recommended initiatives that aim to reduce the total carbon footprint of Brookfield Global Relocation Services and its supply chain by 50% by 2028, and enhance the appeal of this plan through revealing a multitude of beneficial factors for the organization, its suppliers, and community. To begin the approach to realizing a 50% reduction to Brookfield GRS's and its supply chain's total carbon footprint is to first measure the current level of greenhouse gases being emitted by the organizations and its suppliers. Using the EPA carbon footprint calculator tool this was accomplished to understand and put an actual value on Brookfield GRS's and its supplier's impact on the environment and to begin setting goals to substantially decrease this level. This leads to the second step of focusing on the internal need to shift the culture, goals, and initiatives towards sustainability before looking to the external environment of the supply chain. To accomplish this second step, Brookfield GRS must reach a high level of awareness for this sustainability shift by the end of 2016, through establishing a Green Committee, setting up an awareness survey, proactively getting involved with the organization newsletter, and the creation of sustainability incentive program. Once awareness is established and continuously increased, a switch towards organization wide mobilization can begin in 2017. This entails looking at areas of high emissions determined by the EPA tool, launching a set of processes aimed at reducing the emissions of these areas by 2018, and wrapping up the phase with an environmental management system by 2018 to catch the results of the processes and allow them to be continuously improved upon. This internal shift towards sustainability packaged into two phases of awareness and mobilization are not just environmentally beneficial but also prove to have value in cost reductions, efficiency gains in processes, reduction in waste/office supplies, talent acquisition and retention, risk mitigation aspects, marketability, brand reputation building, and is a competitive advantage as it inspires innovation. Aiming to reduce emissions by 50% holds huge value internally, but can garner even more benefits externally through Brookfield GRS's supply chain. Once an internal foundation of sustainability culture, goals, and initiatives aimed at reducing its output of emissions are concrete, Brookfield GRS can then continue to build its commitment to the environment and lower its overall carbon footprint by looking externally to its suppliers. This phase is similar to the internal shift, in which awareness and mobilization are required so that Brookfield GRS can identify suppliers that need to be removed, who are willing to work with Brookfield GRS, and the suppliers who are already on track to reducing their emissions by 50% by 2028. Awareness begins with Brookfield GRS communicating to its suppliers that there will be a set of green requirements imposed on them starting in 2019 through an updated RFP process and sustainability survey. Mobilization then occurs with the suppliers abiding to the green requirements of a total carbon footprint calculation to be reported starting in 2019, a set of goals and implementation plans aimed at reducing their total carbon footprint to be reported annually starting in 2019, and an establishment of an EMS or similar system by 2019 warranting continuous improvement of greenhouse gas reducing programs to aim for 5% annual reduction goals and a 50% total decrease by 2028. It is important that the supply chain management employees at Brookfield GRS provide ample evidence of why the emission reduction goal and shift towards sustainability is beneficial for the organization by looking at benefits incurred by Brookfield GRS and value added to other successful organizations like Celestica, Disney, and Intel making similar changes. There are even mutually advantageous results such as increased demand, risk mitigation, cost breakdown form process improvements, and Brookfield GRS and its suppliers will be more collaborative and competitive in the long run. The EMS system then works as a continuous improvement process from 2019 to 2028 to ensure Brookfield GRS and its suppliers are on track to yearly 5% emission reductions and an overall reduction of 50% by 2028. Through Brookfield GRS using this strategy to focus internally and then branching out externally to its suppliers to meet a 50% reduction in total carbon footprint emissions by 2028, numerous environmental, economical, and societal benefits can be gained.
ContributorsGennaro, John Christopher (Author) / Kellso, James (Thesis director) / Whalin, Susan (Committee member) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-12
Description
The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to the system of 'smart' inter-connected networked devices that contain sensors to communicate information to the Internet. Due to the complex and intricate nature of IoT technologies, in addition to the many applications of IoT, the IoT has the potential to revolutionize how we interact and work every day. The information gathered through IoT is aggregated and can be used to improve business decision making, as well as contribute to a greater society. IoT spans various market sectors including retail, energy, and transportation. IoT can also be used to improve efficiencies within the supply chain. By increasing the transparency of items in-transit, in addition to providing greater visibility about inventory usage and consumer consumption habits, there are many implications of IoT that can be utilized to transform logistical processes. While some literature exists that discusses the impact of the IoT on the supply chain, the findings are limited in size and scope and tend to focus on particular implementations of IoT technologies. Further research is necessary to evaluate the impact of IoT to advance supply chain best practices and to understand the potential implications of the IoT in improving supply chain planning and distribution. This thesis aims to address this gap in the literature. By focusing on supply chain management, the thesis will look at the context in which the IoT operates, the market and implications of IoT devices, current logistics processes, the capabilities of IoT, as well as the potential problems and weaknesses with the implementation of the IoT.
ContributorsBentley, Garrett Burton (Author) / Rabinovich, Elliot (Thesis director) / Kellso, James (Committee member) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
This study aims to find measurable approaches to achieve sustainable closed-loop supply chain. The proposed methodology here was initiated with my experience that was gained through InnovationSpace Program. InnovationSpace Program is a year-long multidisciplinary product-design and development program hosted by Arizona State University that aims to tackle societal problems. Inspired by the Design Thinking framework, I found out that much more effort would need to be done from the beginning stage of product design in order to achieve real and cohesive improvement in industries today. Thinking about the concepts of reverse logistics within supply chain and the planned obsolescence during the product design stage, I would like to come out some more efficient and measurable long-term supply chain planning for the industries, regarding its different production lines and the properties of its products.
Through the process of writing the sustainability report for InnovationSpace program, I had gained deeper understanding about applying sustainability concept into daily business procedures. As supply chain is defined as the oversight over materials, services, information and finances flowed within and among companies and industries, the new innovative supply chain management can be better adjusted according to the concern of any sustainable impact to all the stakeholders and communities. After gathering the information from industries and listening to the suggestions from academic insights, I then finalized the proposed innovative sustainability strategy for the supply chain management nowadays and I called it as Diamond Index.
Diamond Index=Avg(Environmental Stewardship+Social Responsibility +Economic Impact)^(Innovation Index)
Economic Impact (Econ)∈ [0, 10] Social Responsibility (Soc)∈[0, 10]
Environmental Stewardship (Env) ∈ [0, 10] Innovation ∈ [0, 1]
Through the process of writing the sustainability report for InnovationSpace program, I had gained deeper understanding about applying sustainability concept into daily business procedures. As supply chain is defined as the oversight over materials, services, information and finances flowed within and among companies and industries, the new innovative supply chain management can be better adjusted according to the concern of any sustainable impact to all the stakeholders and communities. After gathering the information from industries and listening to the suggestions from academic insights, I then finalized the proposed innovative sustainability strategy for the supply chain management nowadays and I called it as Diamond Index.
Diamond Index=Avg(Environmental Stewardship+Social Responsibility +Economic Impact)^(Innovation Index)
Economic Impact (Econ)∈ [0, 10] Social Responsibility (Soc)∈[0, 10]
Environmental Stewardship (Env) ∈ [0, 10] Innovation ∈ [0, 1]
ContributorsQiang, Rubing (Author) / Boradkar, Prasad (Thesis director) / Peck, Sidnee (Committee member) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-12
Description
The purpose of this honors thesis is to discover ways for a large humanitarian organization to more cost effectively manage its fleet of vehicles. The first phase of work involved cleaning the large data set provided by the organization. Next, we used the program STATA to run a Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) to see which variables have the largest effect on the percentage of price decline and total mileage of each vehicle. The SUR model indicated that price decline is most influenced by cumulative minor repairs, total accessories, age, percentage of paved roads, and number of accidents. In addition, total mileage was most affected by percentage of paved roads, cumulative minor repairs, all wheel drive, and age. The final step of the project involved providing recommendations to the humanitarian organization based on the above results. We recommend several changes to their fleet management, including: driver training programs, increasing the amount of preventative maintenance performed on vehicles, and increasing the amount of accessories purchased for each vehicle. Implementing these changes could potentially save the organization millions of dollars due to the scope of its operation.
ContributorsPisauro, Jeffrey (Co-author) / Miller, Michael (Co-author) / Eftekhar, Mahyar (Thesis director) / Maltz, Arnold (Committee member) / Fowler, John (Committee member) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-12