Two essays in commonality

In the first part of this thesis we consider a manufacturer that introduces successive generations of products, possibly on multiple similar production lines. We consider two types of production phase for this firm; pilot production phase and full production phase. Pilot production phase for a newly developed product is an experimental production period in which a limited amount of production capacity of the production line is allocated to produce the new product so that production process of the new product is improved through cumulative production experience. At the conclusion of the pilot production phase, a production methodology is formalized and the obtained knowledge is utilized for full production. The objective of the first part of this thesis is two-fold: First, to determine how to operate the pilot production phase of a newly developed product; Second, to characterize how production processes of a new product can be improved during its full production. To achieve the first objective, we develop two separate models. First, we consider a single production line alone. We analyze how to split production between the new and existing product to maximize profits, considering that the new product typically faces low yields initially.

Department dc:contributor.department

Sloan School of Management.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Arslan, Hasan, Ph. D. Sloan School of Management

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Thomas Roemer, Stephen Graves and Donald Rosenfield.

• Sloan School of Management.

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/1721.1/33661
• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Identifier URI

http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/33661

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/33661