Team Projects

At the heart of the Tauber Institute educational experience is an opportunity to achieve results in a real-world setting. All Tauber students complete a 14-week, paid Team Project with a leading firm.

Tauber Institute Team Projects are unlike internships in other programs. Tauber Institute Team Projects are specifically designed for Tauber students and target substantive operations issues with business and engineering components. A typical team consists of three Tauber students, with at least one business student and one engineering student per team. A Tauber Institute project gives you the opportunity to experience a true consulting project with potential for significant savings and return on investment.

Both to test and demonstrate your skills, you need responsibility and the opportunity to succeed. Instead of showing how well you can maintain the status quo, you work toward integrating business and engineering disciplines to make your sponsoring company faster, smarter, and more efficient for today's competitive landscape. Companies work in concert with the Tauber Institute to build special projects for you that can showcase your ability to make a difference in a team environment.

• Substantive, consulting-type experience with leading companies
• Executive-level support and access within the sponsoring company
• True teamwork and leadership experience
• Historical high placement rate with participating companies
• Salary premium over comparable internships.

• $6300 to $7000 - Graduate students with five or more years of full-time work experience
• $5100 to $5800 - Graduate students with more than two, but less than five years of full-time work experience
• $4000 to $4700 - Graduate students with less than two years of full-time work experience, including EGL students entering their fifth year of study.
• $3300 to $3900 - Undergraduate students

Note: Some sponsors restrict team projects to domestic students.

View the list of 2009 Team Projects

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Sample Results from Recent Team Projects

The Boeing Company - Commercial Aviation Services

Lean Process Improvement and Product Alignment Strategy

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 team's 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 Boeing's future strategies, improving Boeing's competitive position in the aerospace aftermarket industry.

Dell Inc.

Auto-ID-enabled B2B Genealogy Trace System

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 Dell's 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 Tauber Institute team tackled a complex assembly-component traceability problem by analyzing the impacts of various Auto-ID technologies throughout Dell's 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 team's 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 team's recommendations at suppliers and factories world-wide via a six-sigma "Global Business Process Improvement" project over the next 6-8 months.

Honeywell International Inc.

CPG Transportation Structure Reorganization

Due to increasing fuel prices, commercial driver shortage, and demand seasonality, Honeywell CPG's 2004 transportation budget was significantly overspent by $7M.
The Tauber Institute project team used Honeywell's Six Sigma Plus approach to reorganize the transportation structure, and implement a proactive approach of "100% lane ownership," "in-house brokerage," and "continuous moves" to align with these changing market trends and reduce cost.

• 100% Lane Ownership
  Freight carriers agree to carry all freight from an origin to a destination at a flat rate per shipment, avoiding equipment unavailability, high cost spot rates, and reducing the workload of shipper's transportation coordinators.
• In-house Brokerage
  Freight brokers physically locate a person at a shipper's facility to decrease response time and ensure a secondary source for shipment coverage.
• Continuous Move
  A round-trip shipment that matches inbound and outbound freight while minimizing empty miles (non-value added movement) at a reduced cost when compared to a typical one-way shipment.

The project resulted in total annual savings greater than $2.1M ($1.1M bottom-line savings)

• 100% "Lane Ownership" rates were implemented with an annual budget savings of $1.1M or 5.6% of budget
• A one year cost avoidance of $750K or 3.0% of budget from the annual price increase typical in the industry
• Continuous move opportunities with a conservative annual savings of $250K were identified. A computer system capable of tendering the complex shipments is scheduled to come online January 2006 to realize these savings.
• Carrier supply base was reduced from 117 to 21 carriers increasing Honeywell CPG's bargaining power.
• Three separate freight brokers physically re-located personal to Honeywell CPG's distribution center, facilitating back-up shipment coverage and head count reduction. (savings proprietary)
• Control plan, operating procedures, and a standard carrier contract were established to ensure lasting success and savings of the new structure.

Steelcase Inc.

Optimizing a Global Supply Chain and Establishing Total Cost Paradigm

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 Turnstone's strategic objectives.

The Tauber Insitute 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 Tauber Institute 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.

View Full Listing of Past and Present Team Project Sponsors

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