Client:
Team: Jay Mandyam
Faculty advisor: Dr. Barr Year: 2008
Documents: Final report (PDF)
In Hollywood, the Assistant Director is in charge of creating the shooting schedule and the Unit Production Manager has the task of making sure that each and every crew position is filled for every day of shooting. On smaller, independent, low-budget movies, however, scheduling is at the mercy of the actors and the crew since they usually work for free or for a small stipend. It thus falls on the producer to create the shooting schedule based on people’s availabilities. Typically, the “easiest” way to approach this is to do it manually, with a lot of guessing, testing, and revising. Read more…
Client: Frito-Lay, Inc. and Sam’s Club
Team: Christian Edison, Ashley Mills, Stephen Rumpler
Faculty advisor: Dr. Siems Year: 2005
Documents: Final report (PDF)
Working with the Frito-Lay Supply Chain Department, our team has found an improved inventory process that will increase in-stock performance at Sam’s Clubs. Sam’s Club demands a 99.8% in-stock performance. Currently, Frito-Lay is not meeting this demand, therefore improvements must be made.
Analyzing Frito-Lay’s current inventory replenishment process, we discovered several problems. Some of these problems included inconsistencies in taking inventory at the clubs, negligence of inventory worksheets, and lack of communication. After further analysis, we discovered that forecasting more accurately would prevent some of these problems. There was a new challenge: finding a method of forecasting the new product line, Pick ‘N Pack. With very little historical sales, it was difficult to forecast sales. Read more…
Client:
Team: Emily Moravec, Megan Siems, Christine Van Horn
Faculty advisor: Dr. Siems Year: 2009
Documents: Final report (Word), Final presentation (PPT)
Although our client is a world leader in casual dining, the company experienced a decrease in overall customer traffic from one year to the next at one of the specific casual dining brands. As the company invested time and money into marketing campaigns for this restaurant chain throughout the year, they were interested in what caused the overall percent change in customer traffic from the first half of fiscal year 2008 (from now on referred to as 1HF08) to the first half of the fiscal year 2009 (1HF09) to be -3.74%. Read more…
Award Winner: Omega Rho National
Student Project Competition
Client: Quest Resource, Inc.
Team: John Jarvis, Claudia Johnson, Liana Vetter
Faculty advisor: Barr Year: 2004
Documents: Final report (Word), final presentation (PPT)
Currently, Quest guarantees about 85% of its gas through monthly contracts, while selling the remaining at the daily price. The amount to guarantee per sale point per month is a major decision within Quest. The motivation for Quest to optimize this process is two-fold. First, by paying close attention to past production, optimization can help assure that Quest will rarely produce under their monthly guarantee and will never incur a penalty for that underproduction. Second, through researching the historical relationship between Quest’s contract prices and the corresponding market prices for each month, Quest can better estimate the contract volume that will maximize revenue. Read more…
Client: American Airlines Center
Team: Andrew Conway, Marcos Garza, Tabatha G. Olaechea, Jennifer Keen, Marcus Wentrck
Faculty advisor: Barr Year: 2004
Documents: Final report (Word), final presentation (PPT)
The American Airlines Center is a dual – purpose facility; they house the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks as well as the NHL’s Dallas Stars and must accommodate them both through out their respective seasons. The AAC is setup to change back and forth to both set ups. Making a quicker transition time when switching from a basketball court to a hockey rink would decrease scheduling conflicts between the two teams, and possibly allow for an increase in other sports; and non-sporting (i.e. concerts, seminars, rodeos, etc.) events to take place in the arena. This could potentially increase revenue for the AAC. As of right now they do not make much money on the Maverick’s and Star’s games, so by decreasing changeover time, they would be able to bring in other venues to increase the amount of money they make in a fiscal year.
Read more…
Client: CEE Prof. Abdelghani
Team: Nora Shora, Laura Tatsch
Faculty advisor: Barr Year: 2006
Documents: Final report (Word), final presentation (PPT)
Many cities across the world have experienced, and are currently experiencing, increased traffic on highways and urban networks. At the same time, roads and highways have a limited capacity and are only capable of transporting a limited number of travelers. An increase in the number of travelers has increased all of the following factors associated with travel: travel time, number of stops, travel costs, delays, air pollution, accidents, and noise level.
Road pricing is one tactic used as an effective demand management strategy to reduce traffic congestion and improve performance during peak periods in many cities. In our simulation model of Knoxville, TN we added tolls to certain roads in the network in order to acquire data that would help us distinguish whether changing tolls during peak hours would improve average travel time. Read more…
Client: Achieve Healthcare Technologies
Team: Kristin March, Laura Bailey, Rachel Potter, Allison Bass
Faculty advisor: Barr Year: 2006
Documents: Final report (Word), final presentation (PPT)
Achieve Healthcare Technologies is the largest privately held provider of information system products and services to the long-term care industry. They serve clients across the U.S. and have long stood for higher quality and improved bottom lines for sub-acute long-term care, skilled nursing, assisted living, and continuing care retirement facilities and communities. Additionally, they have consistently led the industry in introducing new, innovative products and services. Read more…
Client: Alcon Inc.
Team: C. Davis, C. Ngo, D. Nguyen, S. Ramdhanny, B. Long
Faculty advisor: Barr Year: 2004
Documents: Final report (PDF), final presentation (PPT)
Alcon, Inc. has successfully progressed into a research-and-development-driven, global pharmaceutical company focused on eye care. At their headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas, Alcon operates two manufacturing plants that produce more than 10,000 unique products. In October 2003, Alcon closed their Madrid (Spain) manufacturing plant and assigned its manufacturing responsibilities to Fort Worth. The combined product lines have currently been in production with unacceptable inefficiencies, including loss in whitestock production and production time, packaging and labeling difficulties as well as capacity and scheduling issues.
The Southern Methodist University undergraduate engineering students (Team Alcon) volunteered to review current manufacturing operations and propose process improvements with the goal of achieving significant cost savings. The sole purpose of this project will be to observe, develop, evaluate, and implement management science concepts that will significantly support and impact efficiency levels. Read more…