Component acquisition and single-source vendor management strategy in a defense application

Building an aircraft carrier is one of the most complex manufacturing undertakings in the world. Each component must be designed, tested and manufactured to not only Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding's (NGSB) exceptionally high standards, but also to the standards, requirements and approvals of both the Navy and the US Federal Government. As a result of these standards and requirements, lead times for construction materials can exceed two years, while a similar component, purchased for industrial use may have a lead time of 90 days. To add to the complexity, the scheduled delivery date for the carrier is fixed, and compressed so that engineering design and construction must take place concurrently. In essence, the ship is under construction years before the design is complete. As a result of concurrent engineering, a complex procurement process and a limited vendor base, some material is chronically late to the Required-in-Yard (RIY) date, causing deviations from the optimal construction schedule and impacting the cost of the ship. This thesis analyzes the current CVN 78 valve purchasing process to identify opportunities to leverage the product model and existing process infrastructure to improve material delivery to schedule and decrease construction costs for CVN 79. It is the goal of this research to improve the supply chain to support the preferred construction schedule, while reducing cost and risk associated with component acquisition. This thesis begins with an analysis of the current supply chain system within NGSB New Carrier Construction.

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

• Hammer, Lory (Lory Yeamans)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Henry Marcus and Jonathan Byrnes.

• Sloan School of Management.
• Mechanical Engineering.
• 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/1721.1/50092

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/50092