Logistics and Supply Chain: An Overview of Business Jet Aircraft Manufacturing

The paper highlights key points of aircraft manufacturing and supply chain, which includes key supply chain stages of macro processes and logistics of material flow through a network of stages, organization and workstations. Supply chain refers to a series of facilities, with sequence of activities involved in producing and delivering of a product and service. The study was done through personal work experience in an aircraft factory, watching video documentary on National Geography Chanel, literature review of Federal Aviation Administration manuals, books, newspaper articles, aircraft manufacturing websites, and other internet survey. The network of stages starts from ultimate supplier, in the form of raw material, ends up to the final customer, in the form of finished goods. Logistics involve movement of materials, funds, and information between these stages of a supply chain, in a coordinated way. In some large manufacturing facility, such as an aircraft manufacturing factory, multiple stages of supply chain are found within the factory premise itself. Within a specific stage, production lines are found, such that workers and machines are grouped together with a sequence of assigned activities to produce customized, handcrafted, yet standardized outputs. Zooming from supply chain macro level process to micro level manufacturing processes, together with transportation and logistics of material between the stages are highlighted. Keywords: Aircraft Manufacturing, Logistics, Transporation, Supply Chain and Opertions Management

Balancing tax incentives with operational risks in captive overseas production facilities

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2009.Includes bibliographical references (p. 92-94).Due to the general macroeconomic downturn, many companies have turned to offshoring - sending a function overseas - to reduce production costs. While some companies elect to outsource overseas production to outside companies, many companies choose to keep production in-house and therefore create captive production facilities overseas. In many countries, the government will provide financial incentives (e.g. tax breaks, loans, subsidies) to certain companies in exchange for creating employment opportunities and industry knowledge within their borders. These financial incentives may tempt companies to shift more and more functions overseas; however, in many cases, there are significant operational risks involved with shifting functions overseas. This thesis uses a six-month project as a case study for discussing ways to weigh financial benefits against operational risks. The project was conducted at the European headquarters of Spirit AeroSystems, the largest independent designer and manufacturer of independent aerostructures for the commercial aircraft industry. Spirit Europe recently launched a greenfield factory in Malaysia. Malaysia was selected as the factory site for a variety of reasons; among which was a long term tax incentive. This thesis describes the process and tools used to select an optimal transfer pricing relationship (i.e. scope of work to be performed overseas) and transaction methodology that would best monetize the long-term tax incentive without incurring unacceptable levels of operational risk.(cont.) A comprehensive functional analysis was conducted to understand operational risk and economic value. Next, a Monte Carlo simulation was created to better understand project profitability. The results from the functional analysis and the Monte Carlo simulation are united to identify the optimal transfer pricing structure and methodology. The unintuitive result is that, for both operational and financial reasons, the scope of work transferred to the low tax jurisdiction (in this case, Spirit Malaysia) should be fairly limited for existing contracts.by Audrey Chang.S.M.M.B.A

Aeronautical Engineering: A special bibliography with indexes, supplement 62

This bibliography lists 306 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in September 1975

A multi-attribute value assessment method for the early product development phase with application to the business airplane industry

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2005.Includes bibliographical references (p. 327-339).(cont.) market. The method is also used to extract quantitative evidence indicating the existence of enterprise-related attributes for consumer value in products. Marking the first independent review of the loss function-based value method, this study finds that the Relative Value Index is superior to existing value methods at retaining simplicity of implementation and minimal data requirements while maintaining a firm grounding in economics and consumer choice theory. The method is shown to be useful for estimation, though robustness of the results is not certain when used in this manner, and may also be extended to the analysis of large-scale engineering systems and their value to society.The early phase of product development, sometimes referred to as the fuzzy front-end, is critical to the success of enterprises and plays a dominant role in the formation and execution of corporate strategy. In addition, it has been argued that the concept of consumer value is central to effective product development. In this research, a new product value assessment method is established for the fuzzy front-end of business airplane development. Existing value assessment techniques used in the business aviation industry are found to poorly balance the theoretical rigor of the method with the ease of use and accuracy required by practitioners in early product development. A recently-developed multi-attribute value method, based on Taguchi's loss function approach to quality assessment, is modified and extended in this study and applied for the first time to the domain of business aviation. A comprehensive 40-year historical product database is developed for use in testing and evaluating the method, referred to as the Relative Value Index (RVI), enabling the scope of value method appraisal to be expanded to an industry-wide examination over a significant time span. A top-down approach is developed for calibrating value models to empirical market data via attribute weighting factors. Sensitivity analyses and Monte Carlo simulations are developed to test the RVI method's robustness and the reliability of the results, enabling a rigorous definition of the determinants of product competition in this industry. This methodology is a useful advance in the methods to extract objective findings from historical industry market activities. The RVI approach is used to develop evidence in support of a ratio theory of product price and value differentiation in the business airplaneby Troy D. Downen.Ph.D

Framework for the selection of acquisition targets applied in the commercial aerospace industry

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; and, (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; in conjunction with the Leaders for Global Operations Program at MIT, 2010.Title-page reads "Master of Science in Management."-- Student received an M.B.A per June 2010 Degree List, Office of the Registrar, MIT. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 87-89).Acquisitions are costly, even the ones that never happen. They require a significant commitment of resources involving multi-disciplinary teams examining all aspects of a business. This can come at a significant cost if either the acquisition does not produce the value that was originally expected or if the acquisition process is aborted all together. Clearly, it is critical to be confident in the initial selection, when investing capital and resources to carry out the lengthy investigation process. However, while there is exhaustive research on the detailed evaluation of a target, there is very little published about the preliminary selection process. In this thesis, we demonstrate a methodology for acquisition target selection. We propose a method of metric-based ranking of targets for criteria defined in 3 dimensions. The first is a measure of how a target meets the Strategic Goals of the acquiring company. This is critical not only to measure a target, but to clarify and create alignment among the leadership of the company for the purpose of the acquisition. The second dimension is a measure of Acquisition Fit. This represents a rough measure of likelihood of integration success of a target. The metrics in this dimension are based on research into attributes of acquisition failures. The final dimension is a Financial Impact measure, which represents a rough business case for the acquisition. In the second half of this thesis, we introduce a case study of this methodology being applied in the large commercial aircraft (LCA) industry at Spirit AeroSystems, Inc. This case study demonstrates the application of this methodology with the necessary industry analysis, internal and external technology evaluation and implementation challenges. During this case study, the LCA industry is undergoing a period of technological disruption and re-distribution of engineering responsibilities. These shifts in the industry structure require additional rigor in evaluation of technological and engineering needs and capabilities. Experience is statistically a strong indicator of success in M&A. We hope to lower the learning curve costs and associated risk by capturing research of best practices in a manageable process for M&A target selection.by Michael Tajima.M.B.A.S.M

Is Wide-Area Persistent Surveillance by State and Local Governments Constitutional?

This dissertation addresses the following question: “Can wide-area persistent surveillance (WAPS) developed by the United States military and employed abroad as a tool in the Global War on Terror be employed domestically as a law enforcement tool without violating the US Constitution’s Fourth Amendment?” The most likely and controversial application of WAPS by state and local governments is for law enforcement. Aircraft will loiter over a city persistently taking high-definition photographs to capture locations of unidentified persons with the intent to identify persons and areas of interest for criminal investigations. Based on the Flyover Cases, aerial surveillance has few constitutional limitations which WAPS can be consistent. The key challenge in determining the constitutionality of WAPS depends on the Court’s interpretation of the Fourth Amendment concerning emerging technologies. Legal scholars have suggested various forms of the Mosaic Theory, which was introduced in two concurring opinions in Jones v. United States . The Supreme Court has been reticent to engage new technology’s constitutionality. WAPS is among the less intrusive tools when compared to other emerging technologies like digital information or facial recognition. This research argues why the Courts should view Personal Identifying Information (PII) as the line of reasonable expectations of privacy for WAPS and other emerging technologies. Aerial surveillance by nature, collects passive information, new data is not being created by photographing the happenings in public spaces from an aerial platform. In Carpenter v. United States, the Court ruled that warrantless surveillance of cell site location information (CSLI) for more than seven days was an unreasonable search. However, the court repeatedly referred to CSLI as “unique,” whereas “conventional surveillance and tools, such as security cameras,” are not. WAPS should not be limited by the Constitution for the operational duration, time of day/night, camera resolution, location of collection, altitude, or any other variable at the collection stage of the operations. The analysis and exploitation of WAPS data encounters constitutional limits necessary to protect individuals’ PII absent probable cause standards

Performance measurement system for a lean production strategy: a case study of a strategic business unit in the UK

Research related to performance measurement and the inter-action with modern corporate strategies is in need of more investigation. Recent survey based research has revealed a positive significance in competitive advantage. However, these results only occurred when a modern accounting solution and a contemporary strategy were combined simultaneously; when implemented separately no significance was shown. These results revealed limited insights as to how or why the positive results occurred. This research explores the simultaneous implementation of a lean strategy and a performance measurement system consisting of five perspectives of safety, quality, cost, delivery and people (SQCDP). Related case study research in this topic has begun to reveal a number of insights of resistance and mutual adjustment. Research has been limited mainly to the service sector, with limited knowledge in manufacturing at factory level. Previous research has recognised considering an intensive longitudinal approach to reveal further insights. This research adopts a qualitative methodology of an intensive longitudinal case study approach using interview data to explore the dynamics between a lean strategy and a PMS in a manufacturing plant setting. The interview data is supported with primary documents volunteered from the interviewees and a practitioner researcher knowledge spanning 25 years. The case study draws on actor network theory (Latour; 2005) and adopts a theme of connectivity (Kolb; 2008). The results revealed insights of how networks disseminate and grow over time, what happens to engagement of employees if any of the steps of translation are omitted. Furthermore how lean and the SQCDP impacted each other towards a journey of multiple translations and culminating in standardisation globally. The theme of connectivity aided the explanation of what were enablers and disablers to connecting lean and SQCDP

Weasel works SA-150: Design study of a 100 to 150 passenger transport aircraft

As the year 2000 rapidly approaches, the airlines are faced with an extremely competitive and environmentally restrictive marketplace. In order to survive, commercial air carriers will need to find new ways to lower their direct operating costs, increase load factors and comply with tightening federal and international constraints. The SA-150 has been designed to meet these demands by focusing on the areas of aerodynamic efficiency, an improved level of passenger comfort, and a limited application of advanced technology. The SA-150 has been optimized for a 500 nmi. mission to help the airlines meet the challenges of the short haul, quick turnaround flight. With a maximum capacity of 124 passengers, and full baggage, the SA-150 is also capable of covering a range of 1500 nmi. This additional range capability will provide the airlines with flexibility when scheduling their routes. The aircraft features a 'V' tail, fly-by-wire system and is powered by two turbofans mounted under a twelve aspect ratio wing. The SA-150 will have an initial production run of 800 units and have a purchase price of $37.7 million in 1993 dollars

Cryogenic foam insulation: Abstracted publications

A group of documents were chosen and abstracted which contain information on the properties of foam materials and on the use of foams as thermal insulation at cryogenic temperatures. The properties include thermal properties, mechanical properties, and compatibility properties with oxygen and other cryogenic fluids. Uses of foams include applications as thermal insulation for spacecraft propellant tanks, and for liquefied natural gas storage tanks and pipelines

Federal Register

Daily publication of the U.S. Office of the Federal Register contains rules and regulations, proposed legislation and rule changes, and other notices, including "Presidential proclamations and Executive Orders, Federal agency documents having general applicability and legal effect, documents required to be published by act of Congress, and other Federal agency documents of public interest" (p. ii). Table of Contents starts on page iii