Spotlight! 2005: Excellence, Bar None

Following a series of lively corporate receptions on Thursday evening, the Spotlight! 2005 event took off with a start early on Friday, September 16 at the Sheraton Four Points in Ann Arbor, MI. Seventeen teams of diligent students put their best feet forward to showcase their summer projects and to compete for a total of $31,500 in scholarship awards.

Each team presented its project results to an audience of corporate representatives, students, alumni and faculty. Judges from the manufacturing industry evaluated the projects on the basis of scope, implementation, impact, overall presentation skills and other criteria to determine the winners.

TMI congratulates all of the student teams and sponsors for their support and participation in the 2005 summer projects and the Spotlight! event. We look forward to working with our sponsors on summer 2006 Team Projects.

Spotlight! 2005 Winners

First Place: Boeing CAS - Stephanie Fidler, Isaac Jacob, and Kristen Neubauer gave the winning presentation of their 14-week summer project titled "Lean Process Improvement and Product Alignment Strategy." Each team member was awarded a $4,500 scholarship.

Second Place: Steelcase, Inc. - Swapnil Deshpande, Suman Mishra, and Amit Shah came in second place for their project titled "Optimizing a Global Supply Chain and Establishing Total Cost Paradigm." Each team member was awarded a $3,500 scholarship.

Third Place: Dell, Inc. - Ramit Jain, Robert Rudolf, and Eduardo Zawadzki took third place with their project titled "Auto-ID-enabled B2B Genealogy Trace System." Each team member received a $2,500 scholarship award.

Click on the link(s) above to view the project descriptions of the winning teams.

2005 Project Teams

Click on the company name below to view the team project picture.

To view the project descriptions of all seventeen teams, click here to download the Spotlight! 2005 Project Book (PDF).

First Place:

The Boeing Company - Commercial Aviation Services

"Lean Process Improvement and Product Alignment Strategy"
 

Student Team
Stephanie Fidler - EGL (BSE/MSE Industrial and Operations Engineering)
Isaac Jacob - Dual MBA and MSE Industrial and Operations Engineering
Kristen Neubauer - EGL (BSE/MSE Industrial and Operations Engineering)

Project Champion
Christer Hellstrand - Director, Manufacturing, Quality, and Lean

Project Supervisor
Larry Thompson - Manager, Technical Services Operations

Faculty Advisors
Dennis Severance - Ross School of Business
Peter Washabaugh - College of Engineering

Boeings Commercial Aviation Services (CAS) division provides creative solutions and customer support by offering aftermarket products and services to commercial aircraft customers. CAS products, including kits of parts used for aircraft modifications, maintenance, repair, and major upgrade conversions, are supported by two different business units: Material Management and Technical Services. As a result of Boeings merger with McDonnell Douglas in 1997, four distribution centers produce these kitted products, resulting in process inefficiencies and additional overhead and labor costs. The Boeing Company challenged the TMI team to analyze the kitting distribution value chain at each of these four facilities, identify opportunities for improvement, and recommend alternative scenarios to the existing product alignment and distribution infrastructure.
 

The team studied the four distribution centers using lean tools to compare the kitting processes throughout the facilities. Investigation of best practices in the aftermarket maintenance industry, both internal and external to Boeing, facilitated the development of a lean kitting process, yielding a drastic reduction in inventory holding costs and process flow time. The team conducted a pilot implementation at one facility with support from the Sustainability Committee, a group of Boeing employees organized to continue and sustain implementation activities across the four facilities. Applying the principles developed in the lean kitting process, the team created a Process Improvement Guide to support the Sustainability Committee in further implementation efforts, specifically detailing five focus areas for improvement. The team also proposed strategic business reconfiguration scenarios to support the changing products and future growth of the aftermarket business. Through evaluation of the benefits, costs, and risks associated with each scenario, the team developed a detailed Scenario Guide for management to drive further investigation and implementation of the optimal strategy.
 

Full execution of the teams lean process improvement recommendations will lead to an average kit flow time reduction of over 60% and inventory holding cost savings of at least $20 Million annually. Additionally, the roadmaps for improved product alignment created by the team will drive Boeings future strategies, improving Boeings competitive position in the aerospace aftermarket industry.

[back to top]

Second Place:

Steelcase, Inc.

"Optimizing a Global Supply Chain and Establishing Total Cost Paradigm"
 

Student Team
Swapnil Deshpande - MBA/MC
Suman Mishra - MBA/MC
Amit Shah - EGL (BSE & MSE Industrial and Operations Engineering)

Project Champions
Doug Smith - Director, Seating Development
Scott VanderSchuur - Director

Project Supervisor
Gail Carlen - Supply Chain Leader

Faculty Advisors
Vlad Babich - College of Engineering
William Lovejoy - Ross School of Business

Steelcase, Inc. designs and manufactures office furniture. The company offers products with a variety of aesthetic options and performance features that address the architecture, furniture and technology needs of an office environment. With over $100 million in annual sales in 2003, Turnstone, one of the fastest growing Steelcase brands, offers furniture and furniture systems for emerging and cost-conscious companies. Turnstone uses a virtual manufacturing model that makes cost competitiveness and efficient supply chain management imperative to its success. Global sourcing presents an attractive opportunity to reduce costs and is crucial to achieve Turnstones strategic objectives.

The TMI team examined the supply chain for the Lets B chair - an internationally best selling Turnstone seating product. Capacity, quality and communication were identified as the key problem areas. In order to effectively resolve these problems, the team determined the main cost drivers in the supply chain of Lets B and performed a total cost analysis. Two alternate sourcing locations - namely local sourcing from Mexico and low cost sourcing from Malaysia - were evaluated and compared to the current sourcing from France. The team recommended sourcing the parts from Malaysia in order to realize total cost savings of $1.8M. A detailed implementation plan highlighting the potential risks and mitigation methods was provided to Turnstone to facilitate this transition.

Using the Lets B supply chain as a foundation, the TMI team then identified two generic problems across Steelcase supply chains: inconsistency in defining total supply chain costs and unreliability of Steelcase facilities as component suppliers. To mitigate these problems the team created a total-cost decision support system and an internal supplier management process.

[back to top]

Third Place:

Dell, Inc.

"Auto-ID-enabled B2B Genealogy Trace System"
 

Student Team
Ramit Jain - EGP (Master of Engineering in Manufacturing)
Robert Rudolf - EGL (BSE Mechanical Engineering and MEng in Manufacturing)
Eduardo Zawadzki - MBA/MC

Project Champion
David Brown - Vice President, World Wide Procurement

Project Supervisor
Ramswaroop Boddu - Manufacturing Advisor
Charles Revelle - Manager, World Wide Procurement

Project Advisors
Ravi Anupindi - Ross School of Business
Dawn Tilbury - College of Engineering

Dell, Inc. was founded in 1984 and is now the largest computer maker in the world with 16.9% global market share, $49 billion in annual revenue, and 57,600 employees in 44 nations worldwide. It competes in the government, business, education, and consumer markets with a product line that has grown from only desktop computers to include portables, servers, workstations, PDAs, switches, software, peripherals, printers, monitors, TVs, and projectors. Dell is also one of the fastest growing computer manufacturers in the world. It is estimated that Dells global market share in 2005 should be 17.7%. Dell attributes its success to its customer-direct business model, which promotes low inventories, lean factories, aggressive procurement, rapid product development cycles, and high supplier collaboration. PC manufacturing has become a low-margin, high-volume business, and Dell is making every effort to improve productivity by driving continuous improvement.

The TMI team tackled a complex assembly-component traceability problem by analyzing the impacts of various Auto-ID technologies throughout Dells supply chain (from sub-tier suppliers to warranty and returns) while building an understanding of the traceability capabilities and needs of both Dell and its suppliers.

After assessing barcodes, EEPROM, and RFID, the team recommended and piloted a solution based upon 2-D barcodes. The teams deliverables included hardware recommendations, new standards for 2D barcode piece-part identification labels, and a cost-benefit analysis for 2D adoption. The business case identified potential for materials savings, factory cycle-time improvements, accelerated detection of quality problems, and enhanced containment of quality excursions in both the factory and the field. Dell will implement the teams recommendations at suppliers and factories world-wide via a six-sigma Global Business Process Improvement project over the next 6-8 months.

[back to top]

Return to Main Spotlight! Event Page