Product-level bill of material development process : managing complexity

Cisco's current process for developing and maintaining product-level bills of materials (BOMs) has resulted in inconsistencies in BOM structure leading to product launch delays, increased product support costs, and lower customer satisfaction. Furthermore the complexity of having a large number of different, in effect customized, product solutions for its customers makes it difficult for Cisco's supply chain operations group to drive standardized methods across the over 50 business units. For Cisco's supply chain to operate most efficiently, all Cisco Business Units (BUs) must accurately structure and manage their product-level BOMs. The purpose of this thesis research is to document the as-is BOM structuring and management process, assess the issues inherent with the process today, and develop a new process that will drive standardization across the company and address the inconsistencies in BOM structure that are seen in Cisco today. The thesis work will be divided into three major sections; measure, analyze and improve. First, we will examine four business units (BUs) within Cisco Systems, Inc., which represent the varying complexities of their overall business segments. These example BUs will be studied to look at the impact of the current non-standardized process for developing the product-level BOM structure. Secondly, we will analyze this current process and show its impact on the overall enterprise, focusing on the key stakeholders involved with BOM development.

Department dc:contributor.department

Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Lester, Ryan John

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Christopher L. Magee and Sara L. Beckman.

• Sloan School of Management.
• Engineering Systems Division.
• Leaders for Manufacturing Program.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/49784

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/49784