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 - 10 of 49
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
Business students are trained to be professional problem solver. In order to improve students' ability to solve real-life problem, more and more business schools are encouraging students to attend case competitions and do internships before graduation. In curriculum, students are required to work on business cases and projects in team. However, due to the limited exposure to real-life business scenarios, most undergraduate students feel unprepared when faced with business problems in course projects, case competitions, and internships. Therefore, the goal of this Honors Creative Project is to provide students with an interactive resource to succeed in course projects, case competitions, and even internship projects. By introducing resources that focused on analysis approach and project management, students can learn from some successful experience and become more competitive in job market. After competing at four case competitions with talents all over the nation, we accumulated precious experience in case analysis and teamwork development within a high-pressure environment. In addition, the experiences with internships, consulting and course projects have also aided the participants' development in professionalism and quantitative analytics. Reflecting on what we have learned from our experiences, we strongly believe that the insights gained from the past are not only a treasure for us individually, but also a great resource for our colleagues. We hope to transfer our knowledge to others for their own success where "best practices" can be learned.
ContributorsXiahou, Xiaonan (Co-author) / Thoi, Kenson (Co-author) / Printezis, Antonios (Thesis director) / Arrfelt, Mathias (Committee member) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Department of Economics (Contributor) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
This study was conducted to better understand the making and measuring of renewable energy goals by the federal government. Three different energy types are studied: wind, solar, and biofuel, for two different federal departments: the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy. A statistical analysis and a meta-analysis of current literature will be the main pieces of information. These departments and energy types were chosen as they represent the highest potential for renewable energy production. It is important to understand any trends in goal setting by the federal government, as well as to understand what these trends represent in terms of predicting renewable energy production. The conclusion for this paper is that the federal government appears to set high goals for renewable energy initiatives. While the goals appear to be high, they are designed based on required characteristics described by the federal government. These characteristics are most often technological advancements, tax incentives, or increased production, with tax incentives having the highest priority. However, more often than not these characteristics are optimistic or simply not met. This leads to the resetting of goals before any goal can be evaluated, making it difficult to determine the goal-setting ability of the federal government.
ContributorsStapleton, Andrew (Co-author) / Charnell, Matthew (Co-author) / Printezis, Antonios (Thesis director) / Kull, Thomas (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Chemical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
My thesis combines two different perspectives. The first is supply chain management, and the second is volunteering. The inspiration for this topic came from Joy Field's seminar titled "Job Design and Work Allocation for Volunteers in Nonprofit Organizations." My thesis differs from her seminar because I decided to expand her topic to include all types of organizations, not just non-profits. The idea of relating supply chain and volunteering is appealing because I believe getting the most out of each volunteer's experience and those on the receiving end is very important. Additionally, her seminar appealed to me because I have volunteered before and it relates to my major of supply chain management. Volunteer management relates to supply chain management from an operations perspective. A common objective within supply chain operations is maximizing productivity, resources, and value. Mismanaging people can lead to an increased amount of waste in the form of money, time, and resources. That is why it is important to get the most out of the entire experience in order for both the volunteers and the organization to achieve the most benefit. The purpose of this paper is to describe best practices in volunteer management for organizations to consider. I will explore three phases of the volunteer management process: before, during, and after. Additionally, I will provide a personal volunteer experience and assess its effectiveness. My source material consisted of various research articles and journals, and the end result will be an outline of recommendations for organizations to utilize when using volunteers.
ContributorsCohen, Joshua (Author) / Printezis, Antonios (Thesis director) / Sandell, Paul (Committee member) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-12
Description
The purpose of this thesis is to gain a more nuanced understanding of what research is currently going on in the academic realm of supply chain management. This thesis is composed of two parts. The first part contains summaries and personal takeaways from four different supply chain management seminars that were put on by professors who were visiting the ASU campus. These seminars include general topics such as RFID readability, supply chain cash conversion cycles, risk management within the healthcare supply chain, and building trust and trustworthiness in global business. The second part of the thesis will then use a literature review to expand upon the topic of risk management within the healthcare supply chain, and to explore how previous research ties into the current happenings of the industry, as well as its future implications.
ContributorsHemzacek, Noah (Author) / Printezis, Antonios (Thesis director) / Choi, Thomas (Committee member) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
As a part of the supply chain alternative thesis project, various research seminars were attended to understand various topics relevant to the supply chain academic community. After attending these seminars, the topic of humanitarian aid logistics and vehicle fleet management was selected for review. In order to understand humanitarian logistics, its relevance, and its path forward, a comprehensive literature review was completed to address its current status. Through research and analysis of ten academic studies, four common themes were addressed. Last mile logistics and procurement management styles were two underlying themes or areas of improvement throughout most academic studies. It was found in the majority of studies, various types of statistical modelling were used to prove hypotheses supporting improvement in last mile logistics and procurement management styles. Lastly, among academic studies, interviews and commentary supplied by actual field employees analyzed the feasibility of real-world implementation of proposed solutions. It was concluded that while focusing on improvements related to successful last mile deliveries and procurement management styles are relevant to bettering commercial supply chains, solutions for humanitarian aid logistics must be more specific, microlevel to address the complex needs of each organization. It was also recommended that academic researchers work to close communication and knowledge gaps between themselves and practitioners, in order to provide better context for the problems they attempt to solve.
ContributorsAgwani, Hibah (Author) / Printezis, Antonios (Thesis director) / Boloori, Alireza (Committee member) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
For the Supply Chain Management Alternative Thesis, I was required to attend 4 research seminars. After attending all four seminars, I wrote a summary for each one and then did my own research on a subject from one of the seminars. I selected the lecture from Mahyar Eftekhar to do more research on due to my passion of humanitarian work. The lecture delivered by Mahyar Eftekhar on September 27th, 2018 there was a question being asked, “How to improve service delivery, considering the peculiar characteristics of humanitarian supply chains?”. This question can either cost a company a lot of money or save it a lot of money. The problem is how do you reduce risk for a supply chain in humanitarian work? The objective of my research is to find different solutions on risk mitigation for humanitarian organizations and how to bring down costs for the supply chains that these organizations have. Risk mitigation can be difficult for events that happen randomly, but there are ways to help reduce risk. Reducing risk is key to humanitarian supply chains because it can save money for companies that have financial restrictions. Humanitarian supply chains are much different from typical supply chains, due to what is at stake. These supply chains cannot fail, because if they do lives will be put in danger. Disasters can happen at any moment and can range from all different types. Being prepared for the worst case scenario is important in humanitarian efforts in order to bring down costs and save lives.
ContributorsDominguez, Brady (Author) / Printezis, Antonios (Thesis director) / Oke, Adegoke (Committee member) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
The thesis outlines five feasible technologies that can be implemented to assist Arizona State University (ASU) in its attempt to increase its water sustainability practices. After collaborating with internal contacts from ASU's Sustainability department, a plan was initiated to research, inform, and recommend the best technological solution and potential vendor for ASU. Information on the vendor is included in the analysis describing the company's history, its service offerings, and application of the technology mentioned using case studies. Potential vendors were contact by phone and additional research was conducted using the each of the company's website to gather more information such a charts and graphs. ASU's current negotiations with its main vendor, Sustainable Water, assisted in establishing benchmarks needed to be able to compare other potential vendors. Each technology was researched extensively using metrics such as energy efficiency, aesthetics, footprint, purification capacity, and odor. The team had difficulties gathering specific data due to the hesitations of companies divulging proprietary information. As much information was gathered to analyze and provide a comparison with each vendor using a ranked and weighted system. Rating the technologies took into considerations the needs of ASU, the offerings of the potential vendor, and the technological capacities and capabilities. The technologies mentioned each had distinct features differing it from one another. However, each technology also had its tradeoffs. Ultimately, it was found that the most feasible, realistic and most aesthetically pleasing solution was Sustainable Water. After careful analysis, it is recommended to continue discussions with Sustainable Water to meet the needs and goals of ASU's water sustainability initiatives.
ContributorsReid, Tatiana (Co-author) / MacDonaldo, Ariane (Co-author) / Printezis, Antonios (Thesis director) / Alberhasky, JoEllen (Committee member) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Department of Management and Entrepreneurship (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Digital identification technology is the unsung hero of the LEAN manufacturing, Six sigma quality, and supply chain management movements. By tethering the physical to the digital world digital identification has helped usher industry into the information age. Today this technology continues to become more pervasive and advanced, in the future it is likely that it will have an even larger role to play. In this paper ten sources of current (last 12 months) academic literature will be reviewed in conjunction with two GE cases taken from personal experience in order to better understand the current applications and future trajectory of digital identification. The basis of this paper will be derived from understanding how the most prevalent form of digital identification, barcode is used to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of internal and external business operations. This "current state" knowledge will act as a benchmark to understand the potential diffusion and impact of future digital tracking technologies. The exploration of "up and coming" technologies will lead into a RFID technology deep dive encompassing its current applications and the frictions preventing widespread (barcode scale) implementation. In conclusion the "future state" of how RFID and more complex embedded communication devices will expand the scope of benefits granted by digital identification through a phenomenon known as the internet of things, along with the factors effecting its adoption will be discussed.
ContributorsCampbell, Ross Bradley (Author) / Printezis, Antonios (Thesis director) / Taylor, Todd (Committee member) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Increasing prices of pharmaceutical grade prescription drugs have caused hospitals, insurance companies, and patients to search for alternative methods of treating illness. The pharmaceutical industry must find ways of lowering the costs associated with prescription drugs to avoid further scrutiny, increased regulation, and staggering profits. The use of RFID technology will increase transparency of information flow within the supply chain and reduce costs associated with recalls, counterfeits, and expired products. The failure to reduce costs in pharmaceuticals and decreased profits have introduced natural supplements into the market. Without the need for FDA regulation and clinical trials, the pharmaceutical industry has developed supplements with the potential benefits of increasing lifespan. The organic molecule, resveratrol, and its ability to mimic the effects of caloric restriction increasing lifespan in smaller organisms has translated to its use in humans. With the future of increased lifespan and youthful aging, the study of sirtuin activating compounds (STACS) and telomere lengthening will become the future of anti-aging cosmetics.
ContributorsOrtega, Victor (Author) / Printezis, Antonios (Thesis director) / Garg, Vikas (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-12